Lyoko Hacked
by SlightlyOdd13
Summary: Basically starts out as a normal Kadic day, but there's something wrong. Is it Xana or is it someone else? Aelita will have to travel through the depths of the virtual world with an unlikely ally to find what happened to her friends. Takes place in evolution before episode 18. Beware! Spoilers ahead!
1. Chapter 1

"Bang!" Yumi sounded the beginning of the race, and they were off. Her and Ulrich sprinted across the park, grinning competitively. The morning sunshine peeked through the trees leaving paches on the ground, that marked their starting line. Destination; the park bench.

The stakes were high, tension, higher. Who would win this ultimate challenge?

They were closing in on the bench, with Yumi holding a slim lead. "Hahaha!" she laughed triumphantly.

Ulrich scowled, but wouldn't give up without a fight.

And.

The.

Winner.

Is...

Odd? That's right. At the last second, Odd rolled past on his skateboard, claiming first place with ease.

"Hey!" Yumi yelled as she and Ulrich crossed the finish line.

"That's cheating!" Ulrich told Odd.

Odd still wore his trademark goofy grin. "Hehehe..."

"Come on Yumi, let's redo that race," Ulrich suggests.

"Ok. As long as Odd promises not to wreak it this time," Yumi glared ay him.

Odd shrugged, "I won't."

Ulrich replied, "Good."

• • •

Meanwhile...

In her room, Aelita was curled up on the bed, happily reading, and basking in the silence of the empty dorm building. It had been a dream come true the past few weeks, no XANA attacks, lots of sun and a nice long summer vacation. At first, Aelita and her friends didn't know what to do with all this spare time, but they'd gotten used to it.

Yumi and Ulrich brushed up on their pencak silat, while Odd practiced on his guitar. Jeremie, as usual, was still found at the computer desk, but had lately gone back to his study of mechanics and what not. As for Aelita, she was probably the most confused of all. She hadn't had any free time really since before she was in the supercomputer, but it isn't like she remembered that either. What was she going to do with herself, she would always wonder. After trying out multiple pass-times, such as pencak silat and guitar, she found herself wandering the school library.

To most, this was as bland a place as any other, if not blander, but Aelita liked it. It was calm and peaceful, and had so many books. She already had time to read at least five novels since the end of school. Aelita figured it would be reasonable to read these classics people were always talking about, Shakespeare, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen. Who was Robinson Caruso anyways?

Aelita's eyes drifted across the printing until it came to a stop, then there was just a blank page. Aelita closed the book and sighed, now she knew what happened to Romeo and Juliet.

She slid off the bed and started wandering to the library. Books could only entertain a girl for so long, and besides, what was going on with XANA? Was the virus's power really draining? Or is he just planning a massive scale attack? And what would happen if it was all over? Would the gang fall appart? No. The kind of friendship that had grown between them couldn't be broken by XANA, it was too strong. And that was for sure.

Still, there were things Aelita didn't understand, and didn't want to think about. Like Tyron, and who actually turned Xana back on. But as said, Aelita would rather not think about that. She would rather think about, what book to read next.

As she stepped into the library, yet another silent room, she approached the librarians's desk. The librarian was currently residing in Mexico, and had informed all the students she knew would actually read, how to work the front desk. Aelita casually scanned the bar code of her book and headed to put it back on the shelves.

Just as she stretched out, tiptoeing to slide the book back into place, she felt a little vibration coming from her pocket. The distraction threw her off balance, so _Romeo and Juliet_ was placed on the shelf a little unevenly, but Aelita was a bit more occupied with the incoming call.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Aelita, get to the factory ASAP. There's something weird going on here, and I hate not knowing what it is." She could imagine him scratching his head in contemplation, and then fixing his glasses and typing in another code, just by the concerned tone of voice.

"Ok Jeremie, I'll be right there. Do you want me to get the others? I think their in the park," Aelita offered, already leaving the library.

"They're already here," Jeremie informed her. "I really can't figure this one out," Aelita heard him sigh. "Just, get here quick ok? I have a feeling this isn't going to be good."

Aelita smiled, "I'll be there in a flash, bye."

"Bye."

As she ran through the park, she wondered what was up. Were the supercomputer's batteries on the blink again, or was XANA just up to his old tricks again? Probably the latter, but there must be more to it, judging by Jeremie's vague discription.

Aelita tore back the man-hole cover, and slid in, not giving it much thought as she climbed down the ladder and saddled up onto her scooter. Some would call it nerdy, but it was much more stable than a skateboard, despite having less wheels, and Aelita wasn't about to change for a trend.

Like she had said, in a flash she was at the factory, hopping into the elevator. When she reached the lower level and the massive door opened, she saw the giant computer, then a bit of Jeremie's hair sticking out the top, and his feet dangling bellow, as usual.

She didn't want to disturb him so she kept it short, "To the scanners?"

Jeremie poked his head out from behind the computer. "Oh, Aelita, um, yes. There all already in lyoko."

"Ok," Aelita pushed the button, and saw the workaholic Jeremie slide back behind the giant contraption and type something else in before the door shut again.

_Weird_, she thought as the elevator descended. _I guess we're all having a bizarre day._

Aelita got off and positioned herself in the scanner. "Ready!" she called, but chances were Jeremie already knew that. She really liked the materialization process, it gave her an interesting tingling sensation. First the scanner closed and she would get scanned, then that data would be transferred, so in a matter of seconds she would be virtualized.

Landing on the mountain sector, Aelita saw her peers. Yumi, Odd and Ulrich all stood there, all waiting for her. Now she was here.

"What's going on?" Aelita asked, jogging over to the rest.

The majority just shrugged. Jeremie answered, "There have been strange pulsations coming from around here. Aelita, I want you to check the way-tower's interface. There is definitely something wrong here." he paused, most likely to type, because it is very hard to type something while saying something completely different, and chances are you're going to mess up one or the other. "North by north-east. Here come your vehicles."

~END~

AUTHORS NOTE

Yup, another story. Yes, I'm a Code Lyoko fanatic, isn't that obvious? Please review.


	2. Chapter 2

"And the waiter said, 'no, I don't have frog's legs that's just the way I walk' ", Odd was grinning and laughing madly.

"Uuuuugh," Ulrich groaned, revving the overbike's engine. If Aelita didn't know any better she would have guessed that wasn't the first time today Odd had tried to make 'em laugh, and not been successful.

"So this is what you've been putting up with all morning," Aelita knew her friend meant well and was just trying to brighten up the mood.

"Yup. This and much more," Yumi replied turning her head over her shoulder to talk to Aelita, who stood behind her on the overwing.

"But if you call right now you can get him absolutely free of charge," Ulrich offered jokingly.

The girls laughed.

"Hey! You know you guys can't live without me, so don't deny it!" Odd was weaving around them on his board.

After a few seconds of nothing, Yumi asked, "What do you think XANA's up to?" she didn't aim the question at any one person.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as nobody answered.

"Umm," the expression on Odd's face showed he was clueless.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Jeremie's voice eched from the lab. "That's why I'm hoping we can shut it down before we have to find out the hard way." Aelita understood what Jeremie was taking about, XANA is a sinister and dangerous enemy. Worst of all he's smart, smarter than Jeremie where computers were concerned. Aelita supposed that made sense considering XANA was a computer virus and Jeremie was only an overachieving human kid.

The rest of the venture through the mountain sector seemed short, not only because it was. It was relatively silent, Odd making the occasional joke, Ulrich groaning, Yumi rolling her eyes, Aelita giggling, and so on. It was almost too quiet.

Aelita was sure that if they had been approaching an activated tower, Yumi would have already said her catchphrase; 'This is too easy'. Yumi was always a little suspicious on lyoko, but Aelita didn't blame her.

"You should be able to see it now, at 10 o'clock," Jeremie piped up, he'd been silently typing away for who knows how long. Sure enough, there it was, up ahead, blue smoke circling it and all.

The vehicles pulled up and Aelita hopped off. With a little wave she entered the tower, emediately becoming aware of the blue binary surroundings she was so used to. She skipped to the center of the XANA symbol floor and opened up the search window. There was lots to do.

Meanwhile, the lyoko warriors were hanging around the tower looking pretty bored.

Odd zoomed around the purple terrain, then he flipped upside down, doing a handstand on his overboard. "Look guys! No feet!" He laughed.

"What do you want? A hero cookie?" Yumi asked one time he zipped by. That sent him on another little fit of giggles.

"Hey Jeremie," Ulrich called, "Any luck?"

Jeremie groaned, "Not yet."

Ulrich sighed. Yumi shrugged.

Back in the tower, Aelita was having trouble finding the problem file, there were all of a sudden too many different accessible windows. It was going to be a nucence trying to find this needle in a hay stack, but Aelita wasn't about to give up.

Just then, Aelita's eyes became wide with surprise, "Jeremie! I think I found it!"

"What? That's gr-" Jeremie's voice sounded like it got turned off, which Aelita thought was weird. Little did she know it would get weirder.

Suddenly, the tower shook, as if there had been an earthquake on lyoko. Was that even possible? Aelita didn't have time to wonder.

"Whoa," She was taken by surprise and nearly fell down the tower into another sector, but caught herself in time. It felt like some kind of wave of energy had just washed over the virtual world, as if cleansing it or something. _What is going on here?!_

Another quake hit, not as strong as the first one. Aelita did the only rational thing, "Jeremie?!"

~END~

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys, I know it's been a while but this story isn't gonna be a dead-end if I can help it. Although, in case you haven't noticed it isn't going to be as steadily uploaded as my other fanfic, hope you can live with that. Please review and i hope u liked it.


	3. Chapter 3

"Jeremie?" Aelita called out again. _What was that?_ She wondered frantically, almost afraid to find the answer.

• • •

"Aelita? Can you hear me? Aelita!" Jeremie yelled into the tiny microphone. He sighed, it was no use. Ever since a second ago the screen was blank blue, the kind that showed up when the supercomputer was just turning on, or shutting down, except with no loading bar or anything. And still, Jeremie didn't like it one bit. _What is XANA planning?!_

Jeremie hopped off the chair and scurried into the lift. The super calculator must have an explanation for this. The door opened, and the pint-sized genius wasted no time getting out and checking the hard drive, the multiple circuit boards, the battery, and multiple other gizmos.

"What?!" Jeremie was asking himself a minute later. Nothing seemed out of order and yet there clearly was a problem. Not knowing what to do, Jeremie traveled up to the scanner room and checked all the wiring there. Again, no signs of disruption.

"Urgh! What does it take to get an answer around here?!" Jeremie yelled, and sat down in one of the scanners, in an attempt to vent his frustration. It wasn't the battery, it wasn't anything to do with the main frame, and it wasn't the scanners. Either this was XANA's most sinister plot yet, or there was seriously something wrong here.

Suddenly the scanner that was occupied slammed closed, with Jeremie trapped inside, just nearly getting his feet cut off at the ankles. Whatever was going on, it just got worse.

"Help!" Jeremie banged at the door. "Let me outta here!" he yelled. "Aelita!"

• • •

"Uh, J-Jeremie," Aelita called, again. She had stepped out of the tower and was now wandering the empty mountain region. "I'm all alone here... Jeremie!" The sector echoed her voice, making her feel even more lonely as she crept cautiously around the sector.

"Yumi! Odd! Ulrich?" Where did they go? Aelita asked herself. Suddenly something caught her attention.

In the distance a little ways away she heard a cry, but not like that of her fellow warriors, this one was made by a tarantula speedily approaching.

"Uh oh, here comes trouble," Aelita whispered to herself automatically. Although Odd wasn't there, she could imagine him replying, "It's yoo-hoo it's us time."

Aelita may not be accompanied by her friends, but she could still fight, and she would get them back. She widened her stance and summoned a pink field of energy, but why attack now? She may as well let XANA catch up before blowing the tarantula to smithereens.

As the monster creaked its way over, her anger boiled like magma in a volcano. There was no way XANA would take her friends and get away with it. No way and no how.

Finally, the creature was in range. Aelita started running at it, then sommersaulted as a distraction and shot the energy field at the tarantula. Odd always told her to distract before you attack, because XANA's monsters are rather stupid. It was part of tactic 1.

The tarantula responded in a way Aelita hadn't ever seen before. The tarantula jumped. Right over the energy field.

For a second, it had Aelita distracted, but she snapped out of it. Ok, tactic 2: speed.

Aelita began advancing, while shooting rapid-fire energy fields at the tarantula. It dodged every one skillfully, still not attacking. It was strange, usually XANA's monsters will attack upon being attacked, if not being the one to fire first, but this one didn't even sit up on its hind legs. It was probably defective, Aelita decided and continued shooting.

It wasn't just defective, Aelita saw that every time it slid and jumped, dodging her many shots. It wasn't a normal tarantula, that was for certain. It was smarter and faster. Aelita didn't let the unusualness get to her and kept firing, that is until she heard this.

"Stop!" Boomed a deep mechanical-toned voice.

Aelita stopped, and stared, and was over all very confused. Who was talking to her?

"Who are you?" she asked, not shooting anymore.

"Who am I?" The voice repeated. It sounded like it was coming from the tarantula. "I am Xana." It almost sounded like Wiliam when he was possessed.

"Xana?" Well ok then, Aelita told herself, whatever he wants it's got to be trouble so let's get it over with sooner rather than later. She summoned another energy field. "What do you want?"

The tarantula noticed the weapon and said, "Aelita, trust me, I just want to help."

Aelita laughed on the inside. Xana was surprisingly bad at lying. She mocked the virus, "Oh, yeah, Aelita, trust me, I'm just gonna steal your memory. Oh, Aelita, trust me I'm just gonna possess you then destroy lyoko. Oh Aelita, trust me, I'm just gonna toss you off the edge of the freaking sector so I can kill your dad! I don't think so!" She launched the energy field at the tarantula.

It missed by only a millimeter. Xana told her, "I know where your friends are!"

"Funny how that happens when you abduct them!" Aelita yelled, tossing another field.

"It wasn't me. My monsters are gone too, or haven't you noticed?" The tarantula called, ducking sharply to avoid the next projectile.

Aelita stopped for another minute. True, the other monsters were gone, but that didn't mean much. On the other hand, she wasn't being attacked.

"I'm listening." Aelita wasn't going to waste politeness on a virus. She evaporated the energy field in her hand.

"Your friends, you know," Xana was saying. Then he morphed to look like Odd, "Hi, I'm Odd, I shoot everywhere and miss everything, then when I finally do hit something I stand there and boast for five minutes. Hehehe." the virus mocked him.

"That's not funny," Aelita summoned a pink field in her hand again.

"No, it's hilarious," Xana obviously had a sense of humor today.

She shot at the spector. "Shut up."

Xana morphed into Sissi, normal school clothes and all. "Shut up!" Said an overly sarcastic and squeaky voice.

"How do you even know Sissi? Or what she wears?" Aelita inquired.

"I know what your world looks like. Don't forget I once made a copy of it," Xana reminded.

"Not very successfully," Aelita sassed.

"Well your friends didn't know the difference," Xana-Sissi said, with Sissi's annoying voice.

"Yes they did. And Jeremie even went in and saved them!" Aelita added.

"You're really proud of your knight in shining armor aren't you?"

"What the heck? How am I having this conversation with a computer virus!?"

Sissi smirked, mumbling, "I'm more than that."

Aelita chose to ignore that. "So where are they!?" she demanded.

"I'm not telling you until you put that away," Sissi pointed to the energy field Aelita forgot she was still holding. She evaporated it.

"I don't know everything that's happened, but this is what I've tracked so far. There's someone trying to access this supercomputer, and if it isn't you and it isn't me, it must be a third party." Xana explained, turning to look like William.

"Tyron." Aelita clued in.

"Exactly," Xana as William nodded. "He knows what he's doing, so we don't have much time. There's a special source code that runs the core of Lyoko that if taken, which it was, will result in the deterioration of all of Lyoko."

"If it's so simple, why haven't you tryed it yet?"

"It would require at least five towers to be activated, not to mention monsters to guard those towers and the core itself. Besides, if I had, your little Einstein would have found out that a code like that really exists, then I would have been in even more trouble. As it stood, I could've risked that, or avoid it and hoped that Jeremie never found out, which I'm assuming he didn't."

"How much time do we have?"

"About 2 hours earth time," Xana said.

"What! How are we supposed to save my friends in just 2 hours? And how do we know how much time we have left? You can't tell time in lyoko."

"Shoot the panel on your wrist," Xana suggested. "It'll short circuit, meaning you won't be able to access your wings, but it should tell earth time accurately."

Aelita did as she was told, and little did she know, small digital numbers showed up on the panel. It was 6:33 now, so Aelita figured she had until 8:30 sharp. She opened her mouth to say thank you but thought better of it.

"I know, you're not about to thank the virus that nearly killed your friend multiple times," Xana understood.

Aelita nodded. "Where's our first stop?" she didn't like this teaming up with Xana business one bit, but it might be the only way to save the others, and they were worth the risk.

"Home," Xana replied, morphing back into a tarantula.

Aelita was confused.

"Sector five," Xana explained.

"Oh. Yeah, home, ok," Aelita slowly understood, because you know, sector five, that's where Xana lives, so yeah.

"Here," the tarantula turned around. "Hop on."

"W-what?"

"Are you deaf? I said hop on."

~END~

AUTHORS NOTE

So, Xana's a little sassy, so what? Everybody like where this is going? Great, cause I really like writing it. Also, I know about as much as Ulrich does when it comes to naming the inner workings of a computer, so be nice. If you are a person who does actually know something about the wha-cha-ma-call-its in a computer I would love to get in touch. Other than that I still don't own code lyoko, and I still love reviews, thx.


	4. Chapter 4

"Um, ok," Aelita crept over to the tarantula nervously. Climbing on it awkwardly and settling into a side saddle, she asked, "What happens if you betray me and toss me into the digital sea?"

Xana the tarantula started moving. "Then you get to be virtual forever, and I get to go back to being a wimpy little virus because my whole fleet is practically getting wiped out right now."

"Why can't you just teleport over and materialize more troops?" Aelita asked.

"What? You think I can up and teleport anywhere I want?"

Aelita nodded.

"You have a lot to learn. This is the first time I have left sector five in ten years. As soon as I was programmed, I was always in sector five, that was my sector. From there I could observe every other region and send out troops where I wanted, and activate towers where I wanted. The only time I ever left that sector was ten years ago when Franz hopper tried to make a peace offer, right before he turned off the supercomputer."

Aelita wanted to ask, but she didn't, creating an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"Alright, we're here," Xana said, letting Aelita slide off. They were at the edge of the sector.

"Oh by the way," Aelita started. "How are we supposed to ge there?"

Xana morphed back into William again, and William snorted, "Well that I can do." The next thing Aelita knew they were in the transporter, flying off to sector five. She checked her wrist. Just three minutes had passed since she and Xana had made their alliance and started off, not bad.

They were released into the arena, and Xana immediately ran to the exit which opened faster than usual, with Aelita in tow.

"Where are we going?" Aelita asked.

Xana chuckled in a sinister way, "You'll see."

Xana lead Aelita around the sector seemingly completely in the wrong direction. Aelita mentioned it. "Aren't we going the wrong way?"

"No." Xana said matter-of-factly. "My sector remember?"

Aelita sighed, knowing she couldn't very well argue.

A little while later Xana lead them to a dead-end. "And you said you knew where you were going." She sighed, "Don't worry, I think I know the way from here." Aelita started turning around.

William grabbed her arm. "Don't be so distrusting." He pulled her, and Aelita thought they would both face-plant into sector five's wall, but when she squeezed her eyes shut, she didn't feel anything.

"You can open your eyes now," Xana-William said.

Aelita peeked out with one eye open, then opened both eyes wide in amazement.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, her jaw dropping.

Xana let her stare. "Yes, we did just go through the wall."

Infront of them stood an intricate arrangement, like the rest of sector five, except it actually looked like it was purposefully architected.

Among other things, there was a path of ascending platforms like little steeping stones leading to a door way on the far end of the room. On both sides of that stuck out tall plateaus, each with more platforms connected to them. On those platforms was something that caught Aelita's eye. There were search panels, like the windows that showed up inside towers, and they were scattered around, sometimes two or three per platform. This was probably where Xana stored ALL of his things, not to mention schemed up evil plots.

"Wow," Aelita repeated.

"It's not much but it's useful enough," Xana replied. "Alright, well, since you're never going to come here ever again, not to mention you can't access it unless I give the okay, why don't I give you a tour."

Aelita nodded eagerly.

William-Xana walked up the stepping stone path heading up to the door way and began, with Aelita following. "On your left you'll see the monster making base, this is where I create and deploy my monsters. Currently all of them available are fending off Tyron's numb-skulls. On the right you'll see my tower map, makes it easy to pick and choose which towers I'm going to activate at the touch of a button. Up ahead and to the left, my favourite toy. It shows me options of what I can possess once I have a tower activated." He grinned in an evil way.

Aelita wore an annoyed look. "That's very nice but we don't have time."

William rolled his eyes. "You're no fun." He lead her through the shining doorway. "This, is where I see everything."

It took Aelita a second for her eyes to adjust, then she saw she was in a darker blue room that centered around a screen. A gigantic screen, that divided into littler sections that showed every square inch of every sector, of lyoko.

"Wow," Aelita said for the third time.

Xana-William rolled his eyes. "The longer you stand here gaping, the longer it'll take to find your friends."

Aelita snapped out of it. "Okay, you take that side, and I'll take this side." They split up without another word.

The screen/wall thing went on a long way, but Aelita could see the end of it, on her side. Walking slowly and obseving the screens she could see the labyrinth in the mountain sector, and the fake pond in the desert sector. She saw the familiar tunnels in the ice sector, and the long paths through the forest. She could see them all, she knew every place, but now they all looked so, empty. Memories flashed through her head of the gang, fighting here, racing there, deactivating towers, making jokes, trying out new tricks, trying to figure out Xana's plot, and just being themselves. As much as they were in danger, as much as they were going through hardships, those were good memories. All of them. So many good memories you couldn't even begin to count, they all flashed through her head. Then she looked back at the empty sectors, and a wave of sadness washed over her. It was all so lonely.

Aelita made it all the way to the end of the screen and had found nothing. She called to Xana, "There's nothing over here!" Her voice echoed. "Xana?" It felt really weird to be calling for her arch nemesis.

"How could I be so stupid?" Aelita heard Xana mumbling to himself, the echo was a dead give-away.

"What is it?" Aelita trotted back towards the middle of the screen. Xana was in her sights.

He turned around to face her. "There not going to be here."

"What!" Aelita yelped.

"Dont freak out. Your friends, just like my monsters aren't on lyoko because they're probably in the cortex." Xana sounded a touch annoyed.

"And that doesn't show up here?" Aelita asked.

"No. That's not my sector, that's not my replika, I don't get a visual." Aelita followed Xana as he stepped into a hall, dodging and weaving around the awkward dimensions until he found another, lighter, room.

"So what do we do?" A worried Aelita asked.

"Track 'em." William's pale hand brought up a window and with amazing speed a map of the cortex filled the window. It was blue, to match the room, except for a little red dot that had appeared and seemed to be sending out waves like some sort of pulsation.

"There you are," Xana sounded like he just found his missing puppy.

"Well there's your monsters, but where are my friends?"

"I would have thought you knew this considering you enforced it. Wherever there's monsters, there's you and your little gang." Just then a little green pulsating dot appeared a tiny bit away from the red one. "See?"

"That's amazing!" Aelita exclaimed, happy to know her friends were, there. "But how did you find them? You don't have like tracking beacons on each of them do you?" Aelita stared unhappily at William's Xanafied eyes.

"My monsters are like bats, they send out waves, if I tell them to, and if they bounce back with a certain frequency rating I know your friends are nearby."

"Great! Let's go!" Aelita started off.

"Wait, where—how are we supposed to get there?" Xana actually sounded a bit worried.

Aelita snorted. "You're a world domination crazed computer virus that can no problem permanently virtualize people, not to mention possess them to do your evil bidding, but you don't know how to get to the cortex?"

"Yes."

"Okay, just making sure." Aelita laughed inside her head. "Don't worry, this puny carbon-based life form with a tiny intellectual span, knows what to do."

~End~

AUTHORS NOTE

Yo people, how's it going? I know it's been a while but this chapter's been a nuisance to finish so I hope you liked it! Please review and I promise to have the next chapter up soon, but it might be a little different. Mwahahahahahaha!


	5. Chapter 5

_ Black, all around. Everywhere. Something moved in the shadows. Something groaned. Something got up from the ground. Something rubbed its head._

"Where am I?"

_ Something walked._

"Yumi? Ulrich?"

_ Something heard something._

"Odd? Is that you?"

"Yumi! Where are we?"

"I don't know. The last thing I remember was lyoko quaking, then nothing."

"I think we blacked out."

"Do you know where Ulrich is?"

"I'd like to know where I am first."

**"Well when you find out send me a post card."**

"Ulrich!"

"Hey good buddy, where ya been?"

**"Good question. Any ideas?"**

"All I see is black."

**"What about Jeremie?"**

"Jeremie!"

"I don't think he can hear us."

"Jeremie!"

**"Quit it!"**

"Well what else are we supposed to do?"

"Don't fight guys, we'll figure it out. Hey, where's Aelita?"

**"She was still in the tower."**

"Do you think she's here too?"

**"I don't know."**

"I don't think so. I can't see anything."

"Me neither."

**"That makes three of us."**

~END~

AUTHORS NOTE

Told you this chapter would be different. See if you can figure out who's who talking. Please review :)


	6. Chapter 6

"Here we are," Aelita rode up the elevator with Xana to the skid hanger.

"Ah, the famous Skidbladnir, still a work of art I see," Xana-William observed.

"Why thank you," Aelita took the compliment.

"Yes, why else did you think I wanted to destroy it so badly?" Aelita frowned.

The elevator stopped and Aelita got off, assuming her place on the transporter platforms.

"Where can I go?" _Since when was Xana actually being polite?_ Aelita wondered. She replied, "Anywhere you like. Except my platform." Then she beamed up.

Xana followed.

"Ready?" Aelita asked, her hands already on the controls.

"This has some pretty intricate wirings, nice job for a human," Xana was kind of admiring the skid.

"Ready or not," Aelita lifted off. She directed the skid out of sector five and into the desert sector before submerging in the digital sea.

After a while of silence Aelita began to think it was weird, not having to fight anything? There were always things to fight in the digital sea. Or traps.

"Wait, stop. I set a trap up ahead, so you might want to take the left turn," Xana piped up.

Mmmhmm, what could Aelita say, she knew her enemy like the back of her hand. She turned the skid. "So am I to understand this is your first time down here?"

"In your skid, obviously yes. In the digital sea, no. Where do you think I was when I destroyed lyoko? I have a hidden bunker down here." Aelita felt kind of stupid, that was a no-brainer.

"Wasn't that kind of a bad idea telling me?"

"No. You'll never find it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"It's a wide web world out there. Even if you spend your whole life trying to find one single thing, you still won't find it. Especially if they have a good cloaking program." Xana told her.

Aelita wasn't convinced. "I don't know. Have you seen Jeremie when he's determined?"

"He's not a computer virus. He doesn't know determined. Besides, I have a better cloaking system than Franz hopper did, and I couldn't find him."

Ouch. That left a pang in Aelita's heart. Now she had to ask. "Why did you kill him?" Her voice was steady but serious.

"None of your business," the reply was a mumble through the skid.

"None of my business?!" She repeated. "He was my dad! I deserve to know!"

"Watch out!" Xana yelled. Aelita's eyes turned back to the sea ahead of her where a giant beam of wires was right in front of them. Aelita made a hard right, just barely squeezing by without a scrape. "Phew."

"Keep your eyes on the road."

"Shut up."

~End~

AUTHORS NOTE

Okay, just letting you know, chapters to come might be really short, but I'll try and have some longer ones in there too. Review plz.


	7. Chapter 7

The skid floated effortlessly and silently through the eye-of-the-storm digital sea. Nothing showed signs of life, and nothing attacked, giving the sea an eerie loneliness that was unnerving. Aelita piloted with care, her delicate face serious, still determined to find her friends. They wouldn't be at the mercy of Tyron for much longer.

Meanwhile lower down the ship in one of the nav-skids sat William. Xana meant to look like William that is. His face was hard to read as binary eyes stared into the endless void.

They would no doubt both be much happier when they were on opposite sides again, but for now, what choice did they have? They would both go back to square one if they failed. Square one being when Franz shut the supercomputer down. Neither of them wanted that.

It would mean being weak again. For Aelita it would mean loosing her best friends and possibly her memory of them, for Xana it would mean waiting countless days, weeks, months just charging up power until there would be enough to actually do something with. Neither of them were about to let that happen.

"Are we there yet?" Xana asked.

"What is it with you? One minute you're all vain and one sided, the next you're accusing me and picking fights, and what now? You're an annoying little kid that's bored out of their witts. Make up your mind!" Aelita had had just about enough of this. Why was it her that had to team up with this demonic little virus with personality problems? She was sure Yumi could have handled this, with her level-headedness. Or Odd with his quick wit could no doubt have out-smarted Xana somehow. Or Ulrich, who could have probably just given the virus the silent treatment until Xana gave in and got annoyed. Or Jeremie. If he was there at his computer, he could have avoided it in all and just pressed some buttons and gotten everybody back, leaving Xana to wallow in his own pool of virtual tears over loosing all his monsters. Boo hoo hoo. Xana would have lived.

"You still didn't answer my question," Xana pointed out.

"Uuurgh! We're almost there, ok?!" Aelita yelled.

"Ok," Xana responded like it didn't really matter to him.

"Uuurgh!" How could a computer virus be this irritating? _It's okay Aelita, just get there get the gang and scram,_ she told herself.

"So what's the plan when we get there?" Xana asked casually.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Oh, okay, never mind then."

Aelita clenched her fist, she wanted to pulverize that good-for-nothing idiot. For her sake she hoped this was over faster rather than later. And she also hoped that when they got there Tyron would attack Xana first. How did she get caught up in these things?

Suddenly something swam by, Aelita was sure of it. She saw a streak in the corner of her eye, or did she? Maybe she was just getting paranoid. No wait, there it was again! Flashing by, strangely familiar, a black and white, something. What was it?!

"Hey, did you see that?" Aelita asked Xana, completely forgetting their earlier argument.

"What? See what?" Xana looked around through the nav-skid's long window.

"I thought I saw something," Aelita explained, not taking her eyes off the sea infront of her, where she last saw it.

"Are you sure?" Xana now sounded doubtful.

"Yes, I'm sure." She said matter-of-factly.

"Well—"

It flashed by again. "Look! Look! There it is again! It-it looks like a," Aelita didn't finish her sentence.

The skid shook suddenly, as a shot nearly penetrated the shields.

"What the..?" Just outside of Xana's nav-skid he could see their attacker, none other than Norbert, also known as a Manta. And he had two floating friends.

"What the heck Xana?! First of all, how do you get mantas in the digital sea, and second of all, what was that for?!" Aelita swerved the skid to avoid another few shots and got the torpedoes operational. Nothing says an alliance like being shot at.

"Those aren't my monsters! I sware! Tyron must have... Oh when I get my hands on him I'll..." Xana mumbled.

"Are you saying we've got possessed swimming mantas here?" Aelita fired two torpedoes, which both missed.

Xana growled and mumbled something else angrily.

"Okay, I'm gonna take that as a yes. Release," Aelita undocked Xana's nav-skid and used the power from the remaining three to enhance the shields.

Xana felt his nav slipping away from the skid and got worried. "What did you just do?"

"You're the super virus, make yourself useful. I'll distract them, you shoot. Got it? Good." Aelita had no idea she had so much faith in Xana, but it was too late now and the mantas were getting closer. She turned the skid sharply and accelerated in chosen direction. Two mantas followed, the third still swam toward Xana.

"Wait! How do I do this?!" Xana yelled, but Aelita must have been out of range because she didn't hear. He looked through Williams eyes down at all the levers and knobs. This was not going to end well.

Xana despirately tryed to recall how he had done it with possessed William, was this shoot, or was it this? Wait! It was this!

He pressed the red button on top of the joy stick. In a second some kind of projectile was flying—swimming— at top speed from the skid at the manta. To the virus's surprise there was a flash of light and the manta exploded.

An unsure smile came onto Xana-William's face. He actually killed one! Imagine that. Now to help Aelita. "Hang on deary," Xana said, knowing perfectly well she couldn't hear him.

With a bumpy and choppy start he was off, piloting like it was nothing new.

Further into the digital sea, Aelita was realizing this is what it must be like driving an 18-wheeler while being chased by cop cars. She wasn't sure if she liked those odds. Luckily, after a torpedo nearly hit her going by, Aelita was releived. And annoyed. "Oy! Watch it!"

"Sorry," Xana replied.

"What kept you? I almost thought you were going to leave me alone with these guys," Aelita had to say, she was really glad he hadn't. She'd never gone three-on-one in the skid before, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"And let you have all the fun? No way!" Aelita heard a manta explode behind her and smirked.

"Nice shootin' tex," With that she turned the skid upward and upside-down in a circle, ending up behind Xana and the manta. As if effortlessly, Aelita used one of her last torpedoes and made quick work of the last manta. "Where's the last one?" she asked, making a U-turn.

"You are so untrusting after I just saved your butt. Don't worry, I got it," Xana was being vain for no reason again.

"Are you kidding? I would have been fine without you," Aelita wasn't going to tolerate this.

"Sure," Xana said sarcastically. Since when did computer viruses know anything about sarcasm? "Dock me."

_Do I have to?_ Aelita wanted to whine, but she didn't. She just sighed, again, and reattached Xana's nav-skid.

For a really short period of time there was silence, and the digital sea was quiet once more. Aelita didn't know if it was disturbing or peaceful. After a little while she took a deep breath and informed her current ally, "We're here."

She could see Xana perk up in the nav, and look around until he spotted the replika. "So that's what they look like," he observed.

Aelita wanted to comment but she didn't. Lifting the skid out of the sea and into the cortex's atmosphere, she had a feeling of uncertainty and suspicion. This replika was definitely not the one to trust. Docking the ship she told Xana, "Now comes the hard part."

"Are you kidding? This is going to be easy as pie. Tyron should NOT have messed with my monsters," Xana was evidently feeling powerful. "Beam us down captain."

Aelita's fingers flew across the multiple key-panels. "Beaming." In a second they were on the cortex.

A shot suddenly hit Xana. "Ouch!"

Aelita easily spotted four Ninjas already in fighting stance and one behind Xana. "And you thought this was going to be a piece of cake." Aelita materialized two energy fields while dodging an incoming saber. She shot one, two fields, then ducked to avoid another swing and fired the kill shot. One down, four to go.

Xana rolled William's eyes, "Well not the way you do it." Two ninjas melted into the ground as the other two crept closer above ground.

One popped up behind Xana and just about cut him in half. Xana summoned William's giant sword and battled him.

Aelita laughed. "Talk about irony. That's exactly the trick you used to play when you had William possessed."

"Oh yeah," William turned into black smoke and popped up behind the ninja, easily cutting him down to size. "In your face double ugly!" He told the devirtualizing ninja.

Aelita laughed. She saw a ninja floating just under the ground with only his back above and waited until he was closer, then she violently stomped on him and shot a field there just for good measure.

"Duck!" Xana yelled launching a wave strait at her. Aelita ducked just in time to see the ninja standing over her change into little blue flakes and disappear.

"Look out!" Aelita returned the favor. Xana whipped around, catching the ninja's tiny sword with his big honking one. While he kept it busy Aelita charged up an energy field and shot it at the last ninja. It was stunned in pink electricity for a second then devirtualized.

Xana and Aelita walked further into the sector casually as if nothing had happened. Neither of them wanted to admit it, but they made a good team. It was good to know they had each other's backs, literally.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that the scanners are offline too?" he asked.

"Yup," Aelita nodded, not even fazed. After just kicking butt along side her enemy virus in a virtual world, she expected the unexpected.

~Fin~

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi again! Don't u just love going back in time? I know I do! Don't gotta review again if you already did for this chapter. Thx.


	8. Chapter 8

"How are we gonna get out of here?"

**"How am I supposed to know? I don't even know where we are."**

"Shh."

**"Don't shush me."**

"Shhh! I think I hear something."

_ Silence. Faint shots in the distance._

"What is it?"

"It, it sounds like XANA's monsters."

_ They didn't notice the darkness lifting ever so slowly._

~END~

AUTHORS NOTE

Really short right? Sorry if that annoys anyone but I usually don't do it when I'm writing stuff and I wanted to try it. Please tell me if you think it's good or bad (in a review ;] ). Also, in case u haven't figured it out yet, this is Yumi, Odd and Ulrich talking and they each have their own font.


	9. Ignore this

**Move along innocent citizen. The next chapter awaits...**


	10. Chapter 9

A deep metal against metal groan echoed through the cortex. Xana may have been confused but Aelita knew what it meant, actually now that she thought about it she wondered why it hadn't happened earlier.

"What's that?" Xana's suspicious eyes darted around the sector.

"The sector's awake," Aelita couldn't think of a simpler explanation.

"What?!"

"It's like sector five when you don't get to the switch in time," Aelita figured a homey reference ought to do it.

"Oh," he seemed to understand it more, but not completely.

"Watch out, it only gets bumpier from here on in," Aelita started running, which caused Xana to follow.

As Aelita had expected, the beams moved, the floor panels disappeared and reappeared, and things flew in and out of the way. Xana seemed to be having a hard time keeping up, and as so, nearly got lost once or twice because of the constantly changing architecture.

"Is this really what sector five is like?" Aelita heard Xana panting in the background.

"No, this shifts faster." She yelled back.

"Oh good. Hey wait! Slow down!"

Aelita began to slow down but then thought better of it. "Change into a megatank or something!"

"What?! Oh! Ya!" For a scheming computer virus he was really air-headed. That and he obviously didn't get out much.

Seconds later a speedy megatank pulled up beside the pink elf girl, making her laugh. "That's more like it."

For a while they had to keep running, the sector never once giving them a second of peace.

All of a sudden, Aelita found herself and Xana running down an isle that had no openings on the sides, but of course that wasn't a problem because— the floor just disappeared! Fifty feet infront of them, the platform that used to be the ground just moved away, leaving a nice big pit with the digital sea bellow. Not very friendly.

Aelita had her I'm-determined-to-be-better-than-you face.

"Watch out!" Xana warned her.

She didn't listen. "Don't worry, I got this," she runs up as if she's building up speed, then to Xana's surprise she jumps. "Uh-oh." she starts to fall.

"Oh boy," Xana sighs. Going off the edge himself, he morphs into a manta, immediately swooping down and catching Aelita on his back. She freaked.

"Let go of me Tyron!" She loaded up an energy field.

"No! No, wait! It's me Xana!" The manta yelled despirately.

"Oh," the energy field evaporated automatically.

"I can't leave you alone for one minute can I?" Xana actually wasn't being snarky for once.

"Well I'd prefer you didn't," Aelita actually meant it. "I hate not having my wings!" she pouted, sitting cross-legged on Xana.

"Hey, it was your choice," He reminded her.

"True," Aelita knew that, and normally she wouldn't have chosen a watch over wings, but this day kind of depended on it. Speaking of which, how much time did they have left? Aelita didn't have time to wonder.

"Whoa!" Aelita nearly fell off Xana the manta as a beam shot up just missing him. "Careful!"

"Looks like Tyron didn't like us beating up his welcoming committee," Xana did his best to dodge the next half-dozen beams rocketing up at him from the cortex's floor.

Even though Aelita was hanging on tight, really tight, she was still slipping. More and more beams shot upward and Xana began to think they had been safer on the ground.

Finally, in a minute of hesitation, Xana flew into one of the beams, and while trying to regain a flight pattern after the awkward hit, he noticed Aelita had slipped off.

A familiar high-pitched scream cut through all the sector's other noises like butter.

Aelita began to realize she didn't like falling one bit, and yet she seemed to be doing a lot of it lately.

"Hang on," Xana the manta called, nosediving, but not fast enough.

Looking down, Aelita could see the digital void getting bigger and bigger, closer and closer. Then something unsuspecting happened.

In an instant the digital sea was covered, a new platform materializing to cover it. For a second Aelita was relieved, then she realized she was about to face plant from great heights. She wracked her brain for ideas. _What would the others do? Odd would probably stick his claws in that wall until he stopped. Ulrich probably would have done the same except with his swords. Yumi might have done that thing where she spins around with her fans and would float herself down, but what about me? What would I do?_ The obvious answer would be fly, but she DIDN'T HAVE WINGS. How did she do things before that?

Finally, it struck her. She held out her hand, generally pointing at the ground bellow and concentrated. As Aelita sung a long, high note, a blue spiraling outline appeared. Creation had always been the answer.

"Banzai!" She landed a little unstably on the newly formed ledge and rode down it as if she were skateboarding. It was a dark brown colour to match the base of the sector with the occasional blueish/mechanical bits. Around and around Aelita went, all the time going down as if it were a slide, and when she reached the end of her ride she jumped off, landing on the ground without a scratch.

Next came Xana who not so steadily flew in, first coming down as a manta then changing into a hornet half way, and finally being William once on the ground.

There was an unsuspected silence for a minute. "Well its certainly calmer down here," Xana observed.

The platform started moving up.

"You just had to say it." Aelita looked around and spotted a doorway that was tall and dark, but getting shorter by the second. "Come on," She grabbed William's arm and pulled Xana and herself through in the nick of time as the platform raced up closing the exit.

Now it was completely dark, and Aelita had no idea where they were.

~END~

AUTHORS NOTE

Where are they now? What about the others? Will they be able to stop Tyron? Or will the fate of the world rest in a mad scientist's hands forever? Tune in next time to find out! Also, I haven't gotten many reviews on previous chapters, so I'd like at least 3 on this one before I post the next chapter. Thx :)


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: ok I'm done with writing these chapters mysteriously so from now on I'm actually going to tell you who's talking. Also, thanks so much for all the reviews! I just want to make sure nobody's bored from time to time.

~START~

"Is it just me or is it getting lighter?" Odd asked.

"Now that you mention it," Ulrich looked around the dark-grayness.

"I can almost see my hand infront of my face," Yumi noted.

"Maybe soon we'll be able to see something," Odd said hopefully.

"Like where we are," Ulrich wanted to know.

"And what's going on," Yumi added.

"Yeah, and how to get out," Ulrich concluded.

~END~


	12. Chapter 11

Aelita made a glowing energy field appear in her hand

"There, that's better," Xana looked around the dark corridor. "So where are we?"

Aelita shrugged. "Never been here before," she checked her virtual wrist-watch. "There goes three-quarters of an hour of my life I'll never get back."

"You better hope we find them before our time is up." Xana reminded. "Or else I might push you into the digital sea."

"How would that change anything?" If Aelita remembered correctly they were all going to be permanently virtualized anyways if they didn't get the code back in time.

Xana explained snootily, "It'll make me feel better."

Aelita rolled her eyes. "Let's try that way," She pointed to the only open exit, and they started off. The passage was dark and tall, with limited elbow room so they had to walk single-file with pink-faced Aelita in the lead. Her face was pink because of the glow that the energy field gave off, not because she was tired, which she kind of was. In all honesty she wished she knew where she was going.

The expedition seemed to be going nowhere, fast, and the corridor didn't seem to change at all, except get smaller in width. Now, our squished heros were a bit displeased.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Xana asked, groaning.

"There was no other path, remember?" Aelita rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Hey look! Is that a fork I the road up ahead?" Xana was right, it was a fork. "Oh, look, it gets bigger again. Let's go this way," Xana pointed right.

Aelita wasn't convinced. "I know the other path gets smaller, but I'm getting good vibes from it. I think we should go left."

"Are you crazy? We'll just get squashed until there's nothing to do but turn around," Xana wanted the easy way out.

"Trust me, I really don't think that's the way to go. You know like in movies there's always a fork in the road and you're supposed to take the one that looks worse because that's the one with no booby-traps," Aelita explained.

"Traps? What are you talking about? If the path LOOKS easier, obviously it IS easier. You know what? I'm going right. You can come, or you can stay, I don't care." And with that Xana started off down the right path.

Aelita wanted to yell _wait_, and run after him, but no. If Xana wanted to be stupid and walk right into a trap, Aelita wasn't going to stop him. She had to remind herself that they were still enemies after all.

"Fine," she said and headed down the path less traveled. It was still as dark, and she honestly was a bit worried for Xana because he didn't have any light. It was too late now, Aelita had made her decision. Besides, this was a crazed computer virus we're talking about, he'd be okay.

Meanwhile, Xana was quite pleased with his new elbow room, and he had been getting a kink in his back from hunching over so much. Unfortunately, after Aelita had decided to up and be stubborn and insist on being stupid and going the wrong way, it had gotten dark. After all, everybody knew the hard way wasn't worth it. You could always at achieve your goal going the easy way, just faster. The hard way was for loosers. But still, hopefully it wasn't TOO bad.

Wait, what? _Since when have I become such a softie?_ XANA asked himself. _We're still enemies!_ And it wasn't like Aelita would let anything bad happen to her anyway. Not like he cared. She could take care of herself. Yup.

Xana was walking, now with his hands against the walls, because it was getting really dark. But the walls were getting further appart too. Soon he was following just one wall, wondering exactly how wide this path would get. And how much longer it was.

The next step Xana went to take, there wasn't any floor.

Aelita was crawling now, as the corridor got smaller on her, but she kept going knowing that it would get better very soon. That's how it went. Then she heard a scream. Actually more like a, "Whoa, AAAH!" And it sounded like Xana's eerie voice.

Aelita hesitantly kept going. It would get better, then she would find Xana again, and they would find the others. That's how it was going to be.

Then Aelita got her wish; a way out. A nice long, dark, endless hole in the floor.

~END~

A/N

I know I've kind of been wonky with writing new chapters, and sometimes doing two at a time but that's the way this story's gonna roll. As always review and I'd better get back to work on the next chapter. Toodloo.


	13. Chapter 12

"I just saw something move!" Yumi told the others, a little bit frightened

"Where? What did it look like?" Ulrich asked.

"How am I supposed to know? It's too dark to tell!" Yumi exclaimed.

"Hey! I just saw it too!" Odd pointed, but the others didn't see.

Ulrich drew his swords. "Quiet!"

They heard something shift in the shadows.

The others readied their weapons and waited, listening.

Something moved behind Odd. He spun around and launched multiple arrows into the darkness.

Something flew past Yumi's head as she ducked before another few could hit her. "Hey! Watch it!"

"What is it Yumi?" Ulrich asked, keeping his guard up.

"Either whatever it is can shoot, or Odd should be more careful," Yumi stood back up cautiously.

"Well it's not like I can see," Odd retorted.

Yumi turned, following the shadow as it circled her. "Duck!" She threw both her fans out, the boys ducking just in time.

As her fans returned to her, she knew she had missed. "I didn't hit it."

Ulrich heard something skitter his way. "I guess it's my turn." Everything was silent and he tryed to focus on where it was. Which direction? Where? There!

In an instant, Ulrich whammed his sword down on the ground and heard the something skitter sideways. He swept his sword along the ground and took multiple swipes at where he thought it was.

"Are you getting it?" Yumi felt really helpless not being able to help but she didn't want to risk hitting Odd or Ulrich.

"No," Ulrich growled and swung his sabers wildly. After a minute he sighed, "I think it's gone."

Odd sounded happier. "Well that's a start."

~END~


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: sorry, i really confused myself with these chapters because I thought I already published chap 12, but I didn't, so ya. That would explain why i didn't get any reviews for that chapter. Now for 13. This chapter's a bit of a whopper, so yeah. And also, this is not, I repeat, NOT AelitaxXana, although I know it might seem like it a little at one point. Enjoy and review please!**

~START~

Thump! Aelita landed on the cold, hard ground. Her energy field was long gone, so she couldn't see anything. Then again, she wasn't focused on anything besides, OUCH!

Aelita lifted herself up gingerly, sincerely hoping she hadn't lost too many life points. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark, but she still couldn't see anything.

Suddenly there was movement in the shadows. Quickly, Aelita readied her energy field, and doing so flooded the area with light.

"Hey!" She noticed Xana cringing at the sudden brightness.

"Oh, it's you. You have to stop sneak up on me, or I might mistake you for Tyron and shoot the crap out of you." Aelita warned.

"Well maybe you can stop playing spotlight." Xana replied.

Aelita rolled her eyes. "I told you that path was booby-trapped," after all, he was the first one here.

"Well evidently they both were," Xana pointed out. "But where are we now?"

Suddenly one of the room's walls lit up bright white, as if it were a screen. On it, a red loading bar appeared.

"I'm gonna guess somewhere not good," Aelita whispered back.

They both watched the screen as the bar was filled, then a giant face appeared on it. A face they both had engraved in their minds.

"Tyron." Xana and Aelita scoffed together.

The figure moved away from the screen, he seem to have been leaning into it at first. Now he was sitting in a chair in his computer lab.

"Well well, what do we have here? I've been expecting you two, but not as a team," He chuckled in a sinister way.

"What did you do to my monsters?" Xana demanded.

"And where are my friends?" Aelita added.

Tyron spoke with a deep and slow voice. "Patience, all will be explained. You see, Lyoko is more powerful than the cortex, much more, so it poses a threat for me. Not only is it more vast as a continent with five complete sectors, it's also home to two determined forces. The virus and the children. Together you are nearly unstoppable. Nearly."

"Shouldn't you be cowering in fear then?" Aelita asked.

"No my dear, you are only one. The leader doesn't make the army, and your friends, they are all gone." He explained. " Even little Jeremie, suffocating in the lab."

"You're lying!" A virtual tear pricked Aelita's eye.

He turned to Xana. "As for you, your days of being the almighty virus are over. Those monsters are quite a work, I hope you don't mind if I borrow them."

"When I get my hands on you," Xana was already plotting his revenge.

"Oh, that's right, I forgot to mention the best part," he leaned over and pressed a button on his keyboard and suddenly a giant metal cage came crashing down on top of Aelita and Xana.

Immediately, they ran to the sides, shaking the bars, seeing how sturdy they were, and realizing how little chance they had of saving lyoko now.

"Don't bother," Tyron smirked.

"What's the best part?" Aelita asked through gritted teeth, with a tear streaking down her face.

"I'm so glad you asked. The best part is, I'm going to win, and you can't even do anything about it!" He laughed as if someone had told a really good joke. And the joke was on Aelita and Xana.

"We'll see about that," Aelita mumbled, sticking her arms through the bars and creating as big an energy field as she could then shot it at the screen, directly between Tyron's eyes.

The screen fuzzed out, showing minor damage, then was clear and sharp again. Tyron shook his head and made tisk tisk sounds, "You shouldn't do that Aelita."

"Why not!" She screamed.

"Because, then you won't get to hear my offer." All this time and Tyron was still even tempered, and quite enjoying that his adversaries were not.

Aelita didn't move. "What do you want!?"

"Good girl. Now that everything's taken care of, all I have to do is make decisions about your virtual world, and I think you could help me. I could, A; destroy lyoko, imprison you and be done with the whole issue. Or, B; you could join me, and I leave lyoko unharmed."

"What's the difference?" Aelita asked grimly. "I'll never be on your side."

"The difference is, you get the bonus of becoming more powerful than you could have ever dreamed, and don't forget lyoko holds all those pretty memories of your friends. And your father. You wouldn't want to loose those, now would you?"

Aelita was jolted by the mention of her father. No, she didn't want to lose those memories.

Tyron saw that in her eyes. "I'll let you think about it. For now, I've got things to destroy. Oh and by the way Xana, you might consider putting better locks on your things, they're really easy to break into. But I guess that all starts with a strong _core_, which you don't have. Ta ta," and with that the screen went back to glowing plain white.

Aelita leaned against the cage wall and started sobbing quietly. It was over. Everything. She'd never see Yumi again, or Odd, or Ulrich. Or Jeremie. Now she really had lost everyone important to her. And she was trapped in some dark hole with her arch enemy. Well, one of them. Nothing left to loose.

She fell to her knees and kept wishing it was all a dream. She'd just wake up and they'd all be back again, smiling and laughing, but she knew it wasn't going to happen.

Xana sat down next to Aelita, after a few minutes, and began to speak softly. So softly that his voice almost didn't sound demonic, it almost sounded real, and not like William's voice either. "I'm not very good at this comforting thing, but if there's one thing I know, it's that, we don't stand a chance of getting out of here unless we work together. I need your help."

"What's the point? We've lost. I've lost. It's over," She said in between sobs.

"No, it's not all over. Tyron was lying. Your friends are still alive."

"Yeah, just like my dad." She didn't need Xana to rub it in.

"Well," Xana sighed. "I didn't want to tell you this, but he is. Franz Hopper's still alive."

"Stop it. It isn't funny," Aelita curled up more and kept crying.

Xana grabbed her face and made her look him in the eye. "I'm serious Aelita, he's alive. They're all alive."

For a second Aelita waited there, looking into Xana's eyes. Past the symbols, they weren't as cold and dark as she thought. They didn't look like William's, or evil, or sinister. They looked real. Like a real human's eyes. And there was something about them, something that made her think. It was almost as if... As if she'd seen them before, in a dream. They reminded her of something, something she didn't even know she knew, and she had no idea what it was.

She shook out of Xana's grasp and sniffed, "How can you be sure?"

"I can barely control the factory and I live on lyoko, there's no way Tyron's been able to put Jeremie in any danger. Maybe if he got lucky he might have been able to lock him in the computer lab or something." Xana explained with that voice again.

"What about the rest?" she calmed down a little bit.

"You know them, they wouldn't go down without one heck of a fight," Xana knew that for sure.

"But," Aelita started.

"But if we don't get out of here we won't be able to save them," Xana told her. He stood up and stretched a hand out to Aelita. "Will you help me?"

_We? Us? Are we a team? Does he actually want to help? What's going on? Who is this? Who is Xana, really?_

You see, life is all about who to trust. Unfortunately for Aelita she didn't remember much of her past so she didn't have much experience. She didn't know who to trust.

She trusted Jeremie. The first person she set eyes on when the supercomputer was turned on. She trusted Odd, and Yumi, and Ulrich, and that was good. Beginner's luck. Four people she could trust till the day she died, or they did, but she wouldn't always be this lucky. Sadly there weren't any flashing arrows or giant flags or signs saying who you could trust and who you couldn't. You had to figure it out, the hard way.

The Principal's daughter Sissi, could she be trusted? Aelita's friends said no. That was confirmed when Aelita was mischievously mislead on her second day on earth. And William? Could he be trusted? Well, that was a whole other story...

The real question at hand was Xana. Could Xana be trusted? On first thought, of course not, he's the evil virus out to destroy the world, but who was he really? Ever since they'd teamed up it's been, weird. Aelita didn't know what to expect. Then there was that whole bizarreness about Xana, first his shifting attitude, and now this.

It's like Xana was pretending to be someone he isn't, which is probably what all that hip phrasing was about earlier, but it just seemed really, weird, like unnerving weird.

Aelita put her hand in Xana's and stood up. She didn't know what that thing was, the thing that made Xana human, but she knew she could trust it. She could trust Xana.

She wiped away what was left of her tears. "How do we get out?"

Xana smiled and for a split second looked really truly human. Then Xana looked away to explain. "I was thinking the roof."

"The roof?" Aelita looked up quizzically.

Xana nodded. "Tyron's made it clear that the bars are pretty tough, but he never said anything about the ceiling."

Aelita made an average size energy field and shot it up, it hit it, easily breaking as if it was made of paper. "Smart," She said to Xana.

In no time, they were both out of the cage and had found another door leading out of the room.

"What's the plan?" Aelita asked as they ran down the not so dark hall.

Xana gulped. "I was hoping you had one."

"Okay then. YOLO."

"What?"

Aelita didn't have time to explain as they came to an opening back on the surface of the cortex. They could see the Skid in the distance, and some ninjas trashing it.

Aelita skidded to a stop and pulled Xana behind a wall. "Okay, new plan, split up and scout the sector for your monsters and my friends." Aelita checked her wrist. They had just under an hour left.

Xana noticed this. "No time, and besides, they're not here."

"What?!"

"They're not here," Xana repeated. "Didn't you catch that remark about how my things are easy to break into?"

Aelita looked confused.

Xana sighed, "Remember how I said I have a bunker in the digital sea?"

She nodded.

"Tyron broke into it."

"What? But I thought the signals were coming from here," Aelita recalled.

"They probably were here at first but, I have a failsafe program implanted in my monsters. When high levels of danger are detected, they are automatically teleported to the bunker. Tyron must have noticed this happen to the first few and probably tapped into the inter-digital waves and followed the signal which eventually led him there."

Aelita understood most of that. "So where is it?"

"What?"

"The bunker!"

"Oh, I'd worry about getting to the Skid first," They both peeked over the side of the wall to see the ship. It looked like it was over all in good shape, but they must have broken through one of the nav-skid's shields, because they were now trashing it.

"Gotta remember to improve that shield," Aelita mumbled to herself.

"It's too late for that now," Xana reminded. "All you can do is hope."

"And do this," Aelita ran closer to the ninjas and the Skid. She jumped behind another wall and knelt down starting to sing a long, quiet note.

Xana saw himself and Aelita appear nearby the ninjas, holograms of course. The ninjas saw the holograms, and Aelita and Xana began to run away with the ninjas close behind. Once they were far enough away, Xana caught up to Aelita. "Good thinking."

"That should keep them busy. Come on, there's no time to loose," And they sprinted to the skid and transported themselves back into it. Aelita was very glad she had installed that auto-transfer program.

In no time at all, they were undocked and plunged into the digital sea, and a safe distance away from the cortex.

"20° west." Aelita didn't even have to ask.

~END~


	15. Chapter 14

**"Now turn right a little," Xana said. "No, your other right."**

**"I **_**am**_** turning right," Aelita pointed out.**

**"Okay, your other left," Xana told her.**

Aelita sighed and turned the Skid left. "Now where?"

"Straight ahead." Xana said confidently.

**"How far?" she asked schemingly.**

"A little ways, why?"Xana was getting curious.

"Oh, no, nothing," but Aelita's fingers snuck to the new turbo controls anyway. She turned it on to maximum propulsion and the Skid zipped speedily, leaving the passing sea a blur.

"Whoa, what did you do? We're going too fast," Xana sounded shaken up.

"No time to waste, remember?" Aelita reminded and kept the turbo on.

"We're going to miss the turn," he warned.

"No we're not," Aelita assured.

"Yes, we are." The Skid raced forward. "Here, it's coming up, right there, right there!" They sped right by it. "You missed it."

"Well at least we got here faster than a slug," Aelita pouted in the cock-pit.

"Mmmhmm." Xana didn't sound too convinced, but Aelita wasn't too concerned.

She turned the Skid around gracefully, and pulled up right there, and squeezed through the tight fit. "You could have, urgh, made this a little wider, don't you think?"

The side of the Skid scraped loudly against the wall and a little siren stared going off.

"What's wrong?" Xana asked, a little panicky.

"There goes a nav-skid," Aelita grumbled and turned off the beeping.

"The one the ninjas broke into?"

"One and the same," she sighed, knowing she'd be the one reprogramming that.

Finally they slid up to the opening, which looked like any other replika. Aelita shot she Skid's deactivation beam at the lock. A little window popped up and she realized she didn't have Jeremie to crack the code for her. Then again that wouldn't be a problem.

"What's the password?"

"Bite my Kankerlot."

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused."

This was becoming tiresome. "Password."

**Xana sighed. "64381."**

Aelita typed it in and the lock slid open easily. "Thank you."

"Don't worry, I'll change it later."

"I'm not worried," Aelita grinned, sailing the Skid to the surface of the sector.

"Wow!" She exclaimed, looking at this new sector. It was like no other she'd ever seen before. It was much darker, and had a creepy atmosphere. All around it were plateaus, like on other sectors, but these ones were a dark dark brown, with little red magma rivers running through them. This sector was riddled with lava and volcanoes.

"You say that a lot don't you?" Xana observed.

"Uh, ya. I guess," Aelita was still in awe of the sector. "So what do you call this place?"

"I dunno," Xana shrugged.

Aelita steered the Skid to a tower and started the docking process. "Oh come on, you've gotta have a name for it. How about the volcano sector? No, the volcano replika. Sound good?"

"Sure," Xana shrugged again.

Aelita transported them onto the ground of the sector.

"This sector's so cool! Even better up close," Aelita walked around and admired the view. The sky looked like a sunset, except instead of blue at the top it was ash-black.

Xana looked like he was taking a deep breath in, "Ahh, it's good to be back."

Aelita asked him, "So what do you do here? Besides hide out when the going gets tough."

"Well this is where I used to— wait shouldn't we be finding the monsters?" Xana remembered the real task at hand.

"Well I sure don't know where to look," Aelita told him bluntly.

A smirk appeared on William's face. "Hey, I just remembered something, this is my sector, even though Tyron's infiltrated it. That means I still make the rules," he let out an evil laugh that may or may not have made Aelita a little creeped out.

~END~

**Mwahahahahahahaha! Review!**


	16. Chapter 15

"Urgh, this is so boring!" Odd was sitting cross legged in the dark, only it wasn't as dark anymore.

"I'm getting worried about Aelita and Jeremie," Yumi had began pacing around her little area.

"Well if we're ever going to find them or the way out of here, we need to find each other first," Ulrich reminded.

"And then the light switch," Odd added jokingly.

"But how are we gonna do that?" Yumi asked.

"Simple. Odd, you start to make noise and I'll follow it and then we'll find Yumi," Ulrich explained and started to walk into the dark.

"Make noise? What kind of noise am I supposed to be making? Couldn't you have suggested this earlier? I've been grunting and groaning the whole time and you guys were just ignoring me, letting perfectly good sound go to wa—" Odd got bumped into and someone tripped over him.

"Oof," Ulrich tumbled over Odd.

Odd goofy-grinned, "Found you!"

"You could have said you were kneeling down," Ulrich grumbled, picking himself up.

"Oh well, too late now," Odd shrugged and stood up, linking arms with Ulrich. "Yuuuuumi! Where aaaaaare you?"

"I don't know," Yumi replied lamely.

"Just keep talking," Ulrich suggested.

"About what?" she was a bit clueless.

"Er, what did you have for breakfast this morning?" Odd asked.

"For breakfast? Oh, I don't know, did I even have breakfast today? No, yeah, no. Yes, I did. I had toast. Or was it cereal? Now I can't remember, but I think it was cereal, because I distinctly remember—" Yumi got shoulder-checked.

"Oops, sorry," Odd said. "Was that you?"

Yumi rolled her eyes and linked arms.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Ulrich decided.

~END~

**A/N**

**Yumi's speech about breakfast is something I say all the time, except usually not about breakfast. Anyways, review please.**


	17. Chapter 16

After they got off the Skid, Xana quickly took them to a rather well-concealed cave, in hopes that Tyron wouldn't find them. At least for the moment.

"This is where you make monsters?!" Aelita exclaimed. Xana was leading them somewhere, and meanwhile explaining the use of the 'Volcano Replika'.

"Yeah. I used to spend months here, just creating more and more different creatures. If they turned out good I would stick 'em in lyoko. If the still needed work, I would keep them here and come back later. Where do you think all the monsters came from?" Xana explained.

"Oh, um, I don't know," Aelita admitted.

"All Hopper equipped me with was the 'roachsters', and 'waspsters'. Hated the names so I changed them to Kankerlots and Hornets. All the other ones I had to make myself. Right here."

"You mean they were all your idea?" She asked.

Xana nodded proudly.

"So you made up the blocks? And the krabes? And the megatanks and tarantulas? And even the—"

"Yes, yes, okay, I made them all." Xana didn't really like fan-girlieness.

"Yeah. That's fine. I was just making sure." Aelita shook herself out of it and tryed to sound calm and cool. "So, where are we going?"

"To check out our army." Xana grinned evily.

_Our?_

This was making Aelita more and more suspicious, but she didn't say anything and just went along with it.

"Tyron may have surveillance over most of the sector, but there are lots of things here only I know about."

"Like this cave for instance?" Aelita was squinting, because it had got darker the further they went in.

"Yeah. And my recycle bin."

"What?" Aelita couldn't see his face to tell if he was making a joke or not.

"Yup."

"What's that supposed to mean?"Aelita could barely see where she was going.

He sighed. "You'll see."

"I doubt that highly. It's pitch-black in here!" Aelita pointed out, as if it wasn't obvious.

"Don't worry, we're here," Xana stopped walking.

Aelita strained her eyes too see anything but darkness. "We're where?"

Suddenly a light, like the glow of a candle, flickered to life, illuminating an unsuspected scene.

"I told you already. My recycle bin."

~END~


	18. Chapter 17

The light that flickered on wasn't a candle, it was a torch. The torch that lit up the cave, and the cave that contained a room. It was all very... interesting.

What was more interesting though, was what was in the room. Not only was there a very clueless and surprised little elf named Aelita, and not only was there a dark and powerful virus named Xana by her side, there were also some monsters. Now these weren't your ordinary 'Goosebumps' terrors, and these weren't your usual Halloween costumes, but what was most curious was the fact that these weren't your common Lyoko monsters either. Or at least they didn't look like them.

Scattered across the dome-shaped cave were what looked like a couple of megatanks, a three-some of pale blocks, a handful of Kankerlots in a cage, and three monsters Aelita had never seen before.

"This is your recycle bin?" Aelita asked with awe. The creatures skittered backwards, as if cowering in fear from a loud, echoing voice they had never heard before.

"These are some of the monsters that haven't really worked out," Xana said, looking over his creations. Hearing a familiar voice, the monsters seemed a bit more at ease. It wasn't exactly a family bond, actually it was more like a mad scientist and his frankensteinly creations, but Aelita figured it was as close as Xana would probably ever get.

"I'll explain them all," Xana gestured for her to follow him around as he pointed them out. "These two are—"

"Don't worry, I know a megatank when I see one."

"Actually, I call them Ubertanks," Xana said matter-of-factly.

"What's the difference?"

"They shoot horizontally."

"Hmh," Aelita examined the little guys. She slowly began to notice the twin dark, intricate line patterns on both of the tanks. They were actually pretty interesting when they weren't trying to kill you.

"And these are the Ice Blocks," Xana pointed to the blocks with the pasty blue/grey complexions. "They only shoot freezing lasers."

Aelita smiled, the monsters so far had been kind of weary of her, like they actually did have a bit more than just programming and following commands.

Xana couldn't believe he was saying this. "You can pet them if you want. They won't shoot you."

They were just a little bit taller than her, but Aelita gently placed her hand on one of the blocks, and pet it as if it was Kiwi. She kind of wished she could feel things on lyoko like she could on Earth, and identify all the monsters different textures.

The block rubbed up against her hand in a way that made her think of a cat. She laughed.

Xana moved right along, seeming to pay close to no attention to Aelita and the block. He was about to say something about the black and red-spotted Kankerlots but Aelita spoke first.

"Why are they in a cage?" she inquired.

"Well these ones you really can't pet. These are the Exploding Kankerlots, pretty self explanitory, so you might want to steer clear.

Aelita did as she was told, walking in a circle around the cage in which the Kankerlots seemed to be wandering around aimlessly in. Then she saw the two identical flying creatures up ahead. "What are those?"

"Insekts. They're like Hornets but bigger," Xana said. The two flying animals had similar shaped faces to hornets, and the bodies of Kankerlots, with of course two sets of wings in the back. "This one shoots mines," he pointed to the left one which was a bit darker crimson than the other.

"Nice." Aelita nodded.

"The mines explode shortly after impact too," Xana added.

They kept going a few steps further to the final monster. It was something unlike all other monsters Xana had ever made.

"This is a prototype Volcanoid. It shoots a powerful laser twice as effective as a tarantula's." The monster was tall, taller than the megatanks, and had two stumpy legs and a gigantic kind of shell-like face, where the eye was engraved.

Aelita turned to face Xana. "Why did you scrap these monsters? They don't seem defective to me."

Xana sighed. "The Kankerlots are one-use which makes them kind of a nuisance to produce, the blocks can only do one thing, in comparison to the normal ones which can shoot lasers, rings, AND ice beams. The Insekts have faulty wings sometimes, and the Ubertank, I guess I just got bored."

"What about the, Vol-ca-noid?" Aelita said the name of the monster long and flowy, making sure she did it right and was familiarnames the pronunciation.

Xana shrugged. "I found a way to make it have a shield and shoot explosive shots. That's version 2.0."

"Couldn't you program the shield onto this one?" Aelita wondered out loud.

"Yeah, I guess, but it still wouldn't have the exploding shots." He sounded disappointed.

"So what? If we're going to take Tyron down we're gonna need all the shields we can get our hands on.

"Fair enough," Xana wandered over and put his hand against the rock wall. To Aelita's surprise, a little mini computer screen popped up, and Xana type in a code or something. Soon the Volcanoid's shell-face was glowing pink, and almost looked like it was surrounded by a force field.

"Can he still shoot through it?" Aelita asked.

"Yup."

"And how do you get through the shield?"

"Ah—Not so fast. That's classified virus information."

Aelita rolled her eyes. "Sure sure."

~END~

A/N:

Just for clarification, I own the 'Quest for Infinity' CL game so that's where the Volcanoid reference is from, and pretty much all the other monsters are in that game too. The Volcano sector I _think_ is in at least one other game, but also if you've read the fourth CL comic (official), _Best of the Two Worlds, _jeremie gets virtualized into the Volcano sector. Sorry, I probably should have explained this a few chapters back.


	19. Chapter 18

"We've been walking for ages!" Odd whined.

"Stop your complaining, I think we're getting somewhere," Ulrich was optimistic.

"Yeah, now we've made two complete circles." Odd scoffed.

"We've been walking in a straight line Odd," Ulrich pointed out.

"Well maybe XANA rigged This place to turn around as we walk, you know? Like a hamster wheel." He replied.

"Will the both of you please stop. I think I hear something," Yumi led the way.

"The monsters again?" Ulrich asked, as if reading her mind.

Yumi nodded, and for once they could actually see and acknowledge this. The area had faded into a dull grey fog. "This way." Yumi pulled them further.

"Gee, I wonder what his stratagy is this time," Odd wondered out loud.

"Divide and, um, leave in the dark?" Ulrich asked.

"Well that didn't work too well did it? We found each other and the fog around here is rising faster than my grades." Odd pointed out the obvious.

"Mind you that isn't very fast." Yumi noted.

Odd made a face.

"Well maybe XANA's got something else up his sleeve," Ulrich shrugged. "All we know is that he's definitely at fault."

Yumi stopped dead in her tracks. "I wouldn't be so sure."

Infront of them, as the fog cleared, they could see an interesting scene. They came to a large area and there they were, battling it out, XANA's monsters on one side and Tyron's Ninjas on the other.

The three Lyoko warriors stood onlooking the scene, a little dumbstruck.

"Heheh, guys," Odd started weakly. "Tyron's the bad guy, right?"

"Yeah," Yumi replied, and she and Ulrich nodded.

"And XANA's the bad guy, right?"

"Yeah," Ulrich echoed. They nodded again.

"So, if a bad guy is fighting a bad guy and we're the good guys, who's team are we on?" Odd asked the others, finally looking away from the battleground.

He was met with Ulrich's blank stare. "Uuum..."

"That's what I thought."

~END~

**A/N:**

**You know, I just want to thank all the people that reviewed, for ANY of my stories, and all the people that liked, and/or followed. You guys make my little fanfic-writing world go round.**


	20. Chapter 19

"Aelita, come here," Xana called from his busy computer screen, after a silent spell.

Meanwhile, Aelita had been playing with the monsters, namely the Blocks and one of the Insekts which had warmed up to her. She strolled over to see what was up.

"Okay, here's a map of the Volcano Replika." Xana pointed to a generally oval-shaped hologram. "These are the places that Tyron has under surveillance." About 75% of the dark projection shone bright red. "Here's where we are," A little yellow dot showed up. "And here are our goals." Two small green dots appeared, both in areas heavily surrounded by red.

"Yipes." Aelita began contemplating, not even aware of the fact that Xana's monsters had crowded around for a better view too.

"Here, is the route I suggest we take. It's the safest way," A wavy blue line extended from the yellow dot to one of the green dots.

"Which one is that? Is that the code or is it—"

"According to the pulsations, that's the reinforcements," Xana explained.

Aelita looked down at her watch. Grimly, she informed Xana, "Half an hour."

"Not much, but it's enough." Xana seemed to have a grasp on the situation.

"Well, let's go then," Aelita was a bit impatient. "No time to waste."

Xana turned around to find all the monsters crowded up behind them, obviously wanting to know the plan too.

Aelita turned around, and snickered.

Strolling over to the other end of the room, Xana touched what must have been another panel on the wall, and a hatch opened up like a secret door, in the floor.

Aelita looked down into it and saw only darkness and shadows. "That's our way out?" she sounded doubtful and pessimistic.

"Yeah," Xana gave her a sassy news flash. "Unless of course you'd like to fight your way through hundreds of ninjas on the surface, because you know, that _is _an option."

She sighed. "Ok, ok, fine. Lets just go before the blocks freeze over."

~END~

A/N: btw, I spell it 'XANA' when they think he's a bad guy or 'just a virus' but it's spelled 'Xana' when he's being a good guy. Has anybody noticed?

Also, I know this chapter wasn't very long, but I didn't have all that much inspiration for it, so I hope you can forgive me.


	21. Chapter 20

"Guys," Yumi began. "Do you remember when Jeremie made the marabounta?"

"You mean that big black blob that just kept on growing and growing and growing?" Odd recalled.

Yumi nodded.

"How could we forget?" Ulrich snorted, reminiscing one of Einstein's moments of not-quite triumph.

"Well I'm getting the feeling that, this might be a simmilar occasion." Yumi held a lot of faith in her women's intuition.

"It'd be easier if we knew what the fight was about," Ulrich thought.

"Still. XANA is a powerful and dangerous enemy. We can't trust him." Odd was serious for once.

"But think about it. How many times have we fought with XANA, compared to how many times we've fought with Tyron?" Yumi argued her point with a passion.

"1 to 0," Ulrich chimed in.

"And how many times have we had the same interest as XANA, or the same motive?" Yumi persisted.

"At least 2 more," Ulrich counted in his mind.

Odd was pouted in disapproval.

"I'm not saying we should trust him, I'm saying we _shouldn't_ trust Tyron." Yumi explained.

Suddenly and without warning, a Ninja ran up with his sword drawn, heading straight for Odd.

"Whoa," Odd staggered backward as the ninja slammed his sword down hard against the ground just centimeters infront of him. Talk about wake up call.

Shaken into focus, Odd shot multiple laser arrows at his attacker, all but one missing. The ninja quickly rebounded with another few slashes, virticle, then horizontal. Odd jumped the last one and then (to heck with arrows) punched the ninja right in the face. The blow knocked the ninja to the ground, and Ulrich came over and finished him off.

Odd was still digesting the sudden assault when he turned his attention to group of three more ninjas heading their way. If their bland faces could express emotions, they'd probably look a little ticked off.

"Uh-oh. Guess they didn't like that," Ulrich stated the obvious.

"Believe me now?" Yumi asked Odd, spinning around and bringing out her fans.

Odd smiled and raised an eyebrow. The look in his eye told her he was more than ready for a fight.

With nothing less than a fierce battle cry, the Lyoko Warriors charged at the ninjas and began to fight along side XANA's monsters.

~END~

Yays! Loving the reviews guys! You're the best!


	22. Chapter 21

"Are we almost there?" Aelita asked.

"Shh!" Xana replied, and kept moving through the relative darkness. Aelita was getting tired of these endless dark tunnels.

As they all crept onward the Insekts were getting restless and the megatanks almost got stuck in some places. One thing was for sure, the monsters were not very road trip tolerant. Not to mention the annoying clattering of Kankerlot feet against the ground, which Aelita could hardly bare anymore.

She whispered, "What do you hear?"

Xana sounded annoyed. "You mean besides the sound of your voice?"

She sighed. "Yeah."

"Just shush for a minute will you?" He concentrated, and it seemed as if it was actually going to get them somewhere.

Suddenly the monsters perked up and seemed more excited about something, and Xana did too.

"What? What is it?" Aelita asked.

"They can sense the other monsters," Xana said, quickening his pace.

Aelita followed, with the monsters close behind. She didn't know why but this whole running around, with a sense of urgency and sneakiness, reminded her of going to the factory through the sewer.

Xana stopped, and Aelita nearly ran into him. "This is our stop." He looked forward at the opening they'd come to, and led the way.

They came out into another room, but it didn't seem to be very significant, it just looked like another part of the never ending tunnels and caves of this sector.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Aelita asked doubtfully.

"Yes. Follow me, they're just down here," Xana rounded the corner to find a hallway, at the end of which was a tall door. Simple enough right? Wrong.

Right infront of the door stood six ninjas, armed and ready to go. And they had just seen Xana, Aelita and the rest.

"Uh-oh," Aelita was getting just a bit nervous as the ninjas charged towards them.

"No sweat." Xana smirked knowingly.

In a blink, the monsters zipped around infront of them, and assumed battle stations, which was quite impressive to Aelita who had never seen anything of the sort from Xana's monsters.

Immediately, the three blocks in the front put a layer of ice across the ground infront of the ninjas, managing to freeze one down. As soon as the ice had set, the explosive Insekt circled around, rapidly dropping bombs that finished off the ninja frozen to the ground and caught a second one off guard, killing him as well. Two down; four to go.

The Volcanoid and the normal Insekt were busy firing normal shots at any ninja that got past the ice and the bombs, which was all but one now. Sensing the dilemma, the two megatanks on either side of the Volcanoid opened up and in unison, shot their wall-like lasers cutting one ninja completely in half.

Meanwhile the Volcanoid and Insekt had successfully decreased the number of foes to just one. But this lucky one had managed to by-pass every attack and was about to stab a block!

Before he could make his move, Aelita sprung up on top of a megatank and energy fielded him right into the next dimension. In other words, the ninjas were all dead and Aelita, Xana and the monsters were free to pass.

As she slid off of the megatank, Xana said to her, "Smart thinking."

She smiled.

"We're going to need more of it if we plan on defeating all the other guards. There could be hundreds up ahead, and I'm not sure my monsters can handle that many," Xana admitted.

"I thought you said all your other monsters were up ahead."

"Yeah, how ever many are left," he sounded grim.

Aelita kept her brave face on as they walked up to the door.

Xana sent an electric spark into the mechanism and the door slid open easily. But what they found on the other side honestly shocked them quite a bit.

~END~

A/N:

What can I say? I'm feeling evil today so here you go, a cliffhanger. But don't worry folks, the next chapter will arrive in no time and I can guarantee there will be a lot more action. Probably.


	23. Chapter 22

Infront of Aelita was a sight she really didn't expect to see, and yet there she was looking at it. Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and Xana's monsters were battling Tyron's ninjas and winning.

The monsters behind Aelita and Xana rushed over to help their brethren, joining the fight.

Ulrich noticed her first. "Aelita!"

"What?" That got Odd's attention too.

"Guys!" Aelita waved like a little kid and ran over to greet them.

Yumi glanced behind Aelita, and looked confused. "William?"

Xana rolled his eyes.

"Um," Aelita cleared her throat. "That's Xana."

The other three lyoko warriors stared at him like he was a venomous snake playing dead.

"Is it safe?" Odd asked.

"I think so," Aelita shrugged. "Listen, we don't have much time. Tyron stole Lyoko's source code and we need to get it back in less than twenty five minutes or we'll be stuck being virtual forever."

"Is that even possible? It's not enough time," Yumi worried.

"It has to be," Aelita said sternly.

"I hate to interupt your lovely conversation, but," Xana pointed in the direction of another four or five dozen ninjas.

"Whoa, does Tyron mass-produce those guys or what?" Odd wondered.

"Er, I think I'll go with the or what," Ulrich replied.

"I hope you fight better than you make come-backs," Xana sighed.

"Look who's talking," Ulrich replied.

Aelita stepped between them. "Okay, okay, we all hate each other at heart so let's just kill these ninjas and get it over with."

"Good." Xana replied, drawing William's gigantic sword.

"Fine by me," Ulrich replied, unsheathing his sabers too.

The ninjas ran at a lighting fast speed, but they weren't worried. These were the true Lyoko Warriors, not only the kids but Xana and his monsters too, fighting for their home. Lyoko wasn't about to fall without one heck of a fight. And it was _so_ on.

Four kids, one virus and about thirty monsters versus 60-ish ninjas. Can you guess who was winning?

"Ha! This is a piece of cake," Yumi said, launching one of her fans into the air **(A/N this makes an awesome mental picture if you understand 'fan' to mean an admirer)**.

"Yeah! The only thing dumber than one ninja, is two ninjas!" Odd laughed as two of them came from opposite sides to attack him, and he jumped out of the way so that one slashed the other, killing them both.

"Whoa," Ulrich just barely dodged a ninja's saber as it swung down.

He was just about to rebound when Aelita's energy field dispatched the unlucky ninja. "The scanners are offline, so be careful."

Ulrich nodded and super-sprinted to his next target.

The battle continued, with multiple times the Lyoko Warriors thought they had almost finished off all their opponents, when another wave rolled in.

As this exact event was occurring for the seventh time, Aelita dive-rolled towards her pals, and Xana, and created a semi-translucent glowing red dome around them.

"Hey!" Ulrich protested.

"What's the big idea?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah, I was just about to kill another guy," Odd whined.

"No time. Tyron must be trying to hold us back for as long as he can until Lyoko's gone for good," explained Aelita.

"We need a new strategy," Xana decided. "Time?"

Aelita gulped. "Fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes! There's no way we can make it!" Odd for one wasn't being positive.

"Shut up Odd," Yumi snapped.

"There's not time to waste. So here's what we're gonna do..." They all leaned in to listen to Xana's plan, almost forgetting the fact that he was really their enemy. Almost.

Meanwhile, the monsters out side were standing guard, completely oblivious to the idea hatching within the dome. All they knew was what they saw, and what they were currently watching was a gaggle of Ninjas approaching fast. They stood their ground, not because they knew each round of ninjas put up considerably less of a fight than the last, which was true, but because their small and hard-wired brains couldn't fathom much more than what they had originally been programmed to do. And that was attack whatever attacked them.

As the monsters shot their new targets, which took swings at them, the dome was quickly dismantled by a gang of the dark figures. Unfortunately for those ninjas, they became history shortly afterwards, and not very interesting history either.

"Ok, GO!" Xana set the plan into motion.

~END~

A/N:

Ya, I know, I promised an entertaining chapter and this was a real flop. Sorry, but I was really distracted... And still am... Oooo shiny... Don't worry, the next chapter will be better.


	24. Chapter 23

Meanwhile lots of action was happening on Lyoko and the other virtual worlds, Jeremie was still stuck in the scanner. The pressing issue being the lack of air.

Ever since he'd gotten trapped, he seemed to have started going lightheaded and he hadn't known why since a moment ago. One tiny detail he had completely overlooked when assessing his situation was the fact that, strangely enough, the scanners were air tight.

It made perfect sense when you thought about it, because there needed to be a certain pressure in the scanner in order for the transfer to start up. That didn't take more than a few seconds so you didn't actually need to breathe, or if you did it would only be a couple breaths and then, bam, you're on Lyoko.

But Jeremie needed more than a few breaths, and he wasn't going to Lyoko. He was suffocating.

Upon his realization, he tried to breathe as little as he possibly could, and only take shallow breaths, which was easier said than done. He turned around in the scanner, looking for something —anything— to pry open for some ventilation, but there was nothing.

Aha! Jeremie dared not waste air on saying that, but that's what he was thinking when he found it. One tiny flaw was all it took and at this point, Jeremie's life was in the non-existant hands of the scanner's one imperfection.

In the door of it, where the two sides met, there was a small crack. Not large enough to let any light in, but sure enough that was probably what had kept Jeremie alive for so long.

Quickly, blinking away the black dots that began to dance around, he reached into his pockets and dug.

A small bead of sweat trickled down his (large) forehead.

Finally, with a small breath of relief, he fished out a metal nail file. Don't ask him why it was there, he just hoped it would do the trick.

With adrenaline pumping and a racing heartbeat booming in his ears, Jeremie stabbed the file skillfully into the crack. He turned it and wiggled it, forcing the crack to get bigger and bigger, until the tough metal bent, ever so slightly.

More sweat running down his face, which was a flushed reddish shade, he dug into it trying to expand the gap as much as he could.

Snap! A loud crack erupted in the scanner and Jeremie flinched. When he opened his clouded eyes, he saw a broken nail file in his hand, the other piece slipped through the opening and fell loudly to the ground.

He couldn't think of anything better to do, so putting his mouth to the crack he took as deep a breath as he could and began prying the scanner open with his end of the broken file, further down the door. He knew the hole wasn't very big, but he knew that if there were lots of little holes it would make a big difference. So he started off, sincerely hoping that his pals on Lyoko were ok.

~END~

A/N:

This short, relatively filler chapter is dedicated to blueblur2000 who brought up something both Jeremie and I had overlooked, that being the air tight scanners. Don't worry! Einstein found a way around it. I'll give you a decent chapter as soon as I can, until then and as always, please review ;)


	25. Chapter 24

They started running, Xana led the way. They weaved through the Ninjas, killing only those that were directly in their path. Once they'd made it far enough, Xana whistled to the monsters. With slightly confused looks on their, um, faces, they followed Xana and the kids.

Fleeing the scene into a cave, the Ninjas clue in and start the chase. The monsters rush around the bends, following their master into another big area.

"Stay here!" He barked, and kept running. The monsters and the kids stopped, except for the pink haired one.

"I said stay here!" He yelled.

"No way." Aelita had decided.

Xana didn't look too pleased but he knew it would take longer to argue. He ran out another opening and waited until they were both on board before activating it's levitation.

At top speed, the dark brown platform flew through the sector, just barely avoiding some of the constantly erupting volcanoes, until they reached a place Aelita had never seen before. In a blink they seemed to be floating through a sea of Lyoko towers surrounded by bright red smoke.

Aelita gaped at the scene. "W-where are we?"

"My core," Xana replied sounding a bit impatient.

"Your core?" She asked. What was that supposed to mean?

"It doesn't matter. We're here," He hopped off and started towards another cave. Aelita quickly followed him inside where they found a long corridor. It was scarcely lit except for the one source of light at the end of the hall. Aelita didn't have to get up close to know what it was.

She took a step forwards, but Xana pulled her back just in time. The floor tile infront of her was instantly engulfed in flaming lava which spewed upwards, from a volcano under the path, and by the looks of it that wasn't the only one down there. Xana didn't look too happy to have his sector turned against him.

Aelita looked at him with a worried glance. "What are we gonna do?"

Xana didn't reply. He held out a hand towards the light and after a moment of focus, the source code levitated right to him. With his free hand he grabbed Aelita. "Let's go."

When they turned around, the door was no longer accessible, instead they came face to face with another screen, with the same menacing face.

"Ah ah ah, where do you think you're going?" Tyron's threats wouldn't be very believable with those tell-tale furrowed eyebrows.

"What's wrong? Playing puppet master from behind the computer screen not working for you anymore?" Xana taunted.

"Don't worry Xana, I still pull the strings," Tyron assured, his face becoming more calm, but not completely. "You're not leaving here."

"Want to bet?" The virus smirked. "How are the ninjas doing? Oh wait, that's right, there aren't anymore because my monsters defeated them all!"

"If you think you can keep us here you've got another thing coming." Aelita scoffed.

"Oh I don't think so little girl. You see, even if you did manage to escape, you still wouldn't have enough time to renter the source code and you and your friends would all end up permanently virtual. Forever." The edges of his mouth curled up into a sinister smile at the thought.

"We found a way around that once, and we can do it again," Aelita challenged. "We never give up!"

"Oh how sweet. Well it looks like your mantra is going to be put to the test," Tyron leaned over and pressed a button on his keyboard.

Aelita could suddenly hear crackles running through the walls of the cave. What probably gave it away was the pebbles dislodging themselves from the ceiling and raining down on them. Then came a larger rock, tumbling down and nearly hitting Aelita.

"Come on!" Xana wrenched on her wrist and kicked down what must have been the door, practically dragging her behind him.

"Get their attention." Xana told Aelita. "We've got to get out of here."

"And you?" she asked.

"I'll get the monsters—"

"Don't start without me," she replied before turning around and calling commands at her pals.

Xana mumbled more to himself then in responce. "I won't."

~END~

A/N:

Sorry sorry sorry! I feel like I've ignored everything writing-wise for like a week, even though I really should be knee-deep in these things. I've got like 3 fanfics to work on, 2 on top of this one which are already on hiatus, and then one of my free-time stories, and also an entry I still need to scribble down for a writing contest. Uuurgh! Summer vacation is so ironically busy! Hope you liked the chapter tho...


	26. Chapter 25

"Alright, alright. One at a time. Hurry up," Xana impatiently ushered his creations through a swirling blue doorway. Through the portal, or transporter, the other side looked blurred, but you could still tell it was the sturdy structures of sector five.

It seemed almost like a dream now, Aelita would give anything to just be deactivating another one of those towers and not be so pressed for time. At least the fate of the world wasn't in their hands again. No wait, it still was, and on top of that their lives were in considerable danger, not to mention the fate of Lyoko too. Things didn't look good.

Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and Aelita were alongside the remaining monsters, blocking the exit and keeping the ninjas out, but they weren't very ninja-like anymore. They were more like zombies, and yes Odd did make that reference a little while ago.

The ninjas moved with kind of a shuffling jog, as if stifling a limp, and took random swings with their swords. These were easy targets for the trained crew, who took them out with relative ease.

Within a matter of minutes what remained of the army of monsters had been returned to sector five and it was time for the kids. They slowly —but quickly— walked backwards, approaching the transporter.

Suddenly, just as Yumi was about to pass through it a large boulder dropped from the sky, they didn't care (nor have time) to find out where it came from. The only important thing was, the transport was squashed. No way out.

Xana shrilled with rage, which was of course understandable considering the fact that his whole world was literally falling appart. "This way!"

Letting the semi-immobile ninjas follow hobbling along behind, Xana scrambled up a tunnel until they reached the surface of a large plateau. At the far side of which was the skid. "There's your ship! Take this," he handed one of them the source code.

They took their cue and ran off with a small salute from each, but Aelita would do no such thing.

"Go!" He demanded. "Save your skin!"

"No." Aelita shot a defiant glare. She didnt care that she was wasting predacious time, or that the sector was crumbling beneath their feet, or that the ninjas were closing in on them. "Where do you escape?! I'll come wi—"

As if on cue, out from the cave come the monsters from the Volcano replika. I mean of course the 2 Ubertanks, 3 Ice Blocks, 6 Explosive Kankerlots, 2 Insekts, and the Volcanoid. What Xana and Aelita failed to notice was that these monsters, having never before left the Volcano Replika, we've a bit queasy at the thought of a strange new place, especially without the presence of their master. That's why they came rushing up to defeate all the enemies and ultimately protect their domain, which they intend on doing in the fullest.

• • •

Simultaneously, Tyron was in his computer laboratory hunched over a glowing screen frantically typing in codes. He would never admit it but this was not turning out well at all, he was actually loosing.

After watching the Lyoko kids at work he had often wondered why they could only be made virtual once per day. With just a pinch of thick headed-ness things became clear. Not only were his troops pooped from non-stop violence, but because of the multiple materializations their virtual envelopes were coming appart at the seams.

He had to think of something better. He had to do it FAST. Then he got his idea.

If their envelopes were coming appart at the seams, let's just sew them all back together, he thought, and cranked up his typing speed.

• • •

The Volcano monsters had made quick work of the rag-doll ninjas when something strange began to happen. On top of the crumbling of the sector, a deep groan echoed over the territory like a wave and all of a sudden, the ninjas all came together and stuck to one another, piling higher and higher until they were about the size of the kolossus in comparison to Xana and Aelita. The two stared upwards in confusion, shock and fear, but the monsters had their backs.

Probably in another formation, the monster tried to stratagize how to overcome this monstrosity. All they knew was that they would protect their master, or die trying.

They fired at the thing with all their might, but all in vain, and Aelita knew it. Even so, that uncomfortable feeling had never stopped her before and she ran to join the monsters on the battle front, energy-fielding her heart out.

It was then that realization struck Xana. Aelita was not going to leave until the job was done. She'd gotten so attached to the monsters, and everything, that she was just NOT going to leave them. No matter what kind of danger they were faced with, she was in. She would fight. But it still wouldn't be enough.

Xana glanced around, all across the horizon volcanoes and caves were tumbling to the ground, being swallowed by the lava of the digital sea, and it wouldn't be long till the platform they were standing on would be gone too. Xana knew what had to be done.

Summoning wads of energy from the wide expanse of the Volcano Replika, Xana unleashed a stunning wave of flaming electricity upon the Ninja giant. The attack took him by surprise, and stunned the towering terror, also surprising Aelita and the monsters who turned to look at him, then back at it.

The attack didn't last very long, and although drained, Xana took immediate action. He dove forward in a swift motion, not even stopping to catch his breath, and hooked Aelita by the arm. Understandably, she was confused, but the time for asking questions was long since over. Xana leaned towards the monsters and called out their final command.

"58F7." Although it still pained him a little bit, Xana knew so long as he survived, he could reprogram the monsters, and time was most definitely of the essence.

"The monsters!" Aelita fought against Xana who pulled her along towards the skid.

"Can be reprogrammed! Just stop fighting and run!" He yelled. Understanding what had to happen, Aelita stopped trying to be the hero and go back to save the monsters. A small tear pricked her eye, but she ran.

Back on the scene, the monsters stood their ground as the tall monster teetered dizzily. They had been given a command, a final command, and as always, they obeyed. After all, they were only programmed to serve one purpose; protect their master. This was the only reason they existed. Now, they would fulfill their mission and complete their soul purpose. Though you or I would be afraid and saddened by such a fate, the monsters had no such feelings programmed into them, so they felt nothing, except maybe pride.

So, with a glorious battle cry, the monsters stepped back, never ceasing fire, and made way for six black and red spotted Kankerlots that toddled towards the enemy. Boy was Tyron in shock once they reached their destination.

~END~

A/N:

Was it ok? Btw one chapter to go! I'm gonna try to get it up before Tuesday because that's when I leave for camp. No electronics allowed! ò.ó! How will I ever survive? T^T

Please review! :3


	27. Chapter 26

The sky and surrounding area was ablaze in a brilliant light, silloetting Aelita and Xana as they made a dash for the Skidbladnir. Behind them, six little Kankerlots just exploded, probably wiping out all the ninjas, but neither Xana nor Aelita wanted to risk a backward glance.

It was just a matter of seconds before they pulled up at the edge of the plateau, much faster than it had taken Odd, Ulrich and Yumi.

They stared at the exploded ground behind Aelita and Xana, until shaken out of the daze.

"One of the nav-skids is wreaked," Ulrich informed Aelita.

"I know," she replied, without much thought.

Odd made the issue a bit clearer. "That's four seats for five people."

They hadn't known if Xana had an alternate means of escape but by the looks of it he could use a ride home, and considering that he had just helped them save the world they hadn't felt too badly about the idea of giving him a lift. But this certainly did NOT mean they were friends. It was a temporary alliance was all.

Aelita looked at the Skid, then at each of her friends, and finally Xana. It was a no-brainer.

"Possess me." She said to Xana.

This caused a commotion.

"Wait, what?" Ulrich was dumbfounded.

Odd nearly fell over.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Aelita?" Yumi advised.

Aelita nodded, and turning back to Xana she repeated in the same serious tone. "Possess me."

Xana shrugged and morphed into a black cloud of specter and flew in Aelita's mouth. The whole gang held their breath.

Aelita closed her eyes and could feel the specter enter her body. Having to suppress her natural instinct to fight it, she felt Xana's adept way as he made it through her bloodstream up to her brain. She held her breath for a second when he took over fully, by accident, but in an instant she was back in control, yet he wasn't gone. Her whole body tingled with the sensation of a new pressence, and she could feel Xana's tremendous power flowing through her also. In the depths of her mind she felt Xana, and it honestly gave her a bit of a chill. Was this really safe? What had she been thinking?

"Aelita, are you okay?" She heard Ulrich ask. It was too late to back out now. Xana was in her. They were one.

She opened her eyes and was met with the newly familiar dimness of the crumbling Volcano sector. Her voice came out sounding Xanafied, and there were no doubt symbols in her eyes. "I'm fine. We need to go."

Her friends exchanged confused looks before approaching her, and they all got transported into Skid. Aelita's hands rested upon the controls and she quickly disembarked from the temporary dock and plunged into the digital void. Xana and Aelita were still subconsciously unanimous in the fact that they didn't want to look back at the battlefield. They each had their own reasons, quite similar ones actually, and neither would make the other look back, which was okay with them both.

With professional level steering, Aelita (and Xana) left the Volcano Replika through the little tunnel that led into the sea. The cage like contraption opened willingly and soon they had set a course back to Lyoko. No time to waste either, after all they did only have four and a half minutes. But, everyone was kind of relishing in the fact that they made it through okay, and everything was going to be just fine.

"Whoa, that was one mission I won't soon forget," Yumi was the first to pipe up.

"You said it," Ulrich agreed.

"All that heroism and danger has given me a warrior's appetite," Odd admitted.

"Oh Odd, what _doesn't_ give you an appetite?" Yumi asked with a laugh.

"Well there's, eating," Odd began another one of his jokes.

Aelita shut off the cockpit speakers, not that she didn't enjoy the sound of her friends' voices, it was just so no one would hear the conversation she was about to start.

"So Xana, is there any chance you might stay on our side for good?" Aelita asked, still hearing the deep electronic voice over her own. She knew she was probably getting her hopes up too high.

Xana cackled, but in a joking way. "Sorry, it's complicated," the virus said, before floating out of Aelita's body, and appearing one more time as black smoke, before vanishing.

That figures, she thought. Still, what was that, itching at her brain? The little memory that was long gone, but still left a mark. That tiny trace, whatever it was, made Aelita confused. It made Aelita conflict with herself for reasons she didn't understand. It made her angry, and sad, and happy at the same time. She knew it was something important, something really important, almost forgotten with only a speck left. It was like a puzzle piece. One puzzle piece containing a minute fragment of the whole picture, where every other piece was gone, so there was only one left and you could no longer tell what it fit into, or what the whole picture was. Still it existed, in isolation in the back of Aelita's mind. That's where she stored the bad things, the sad things, the dark things. That's where she would push thoughts that she didn't want to think about, like an endless storage room of unpleasant souvenirs. And one of those souvenirs was coming back to haunt her. It was one of the really sad ones, and really bad ones. One she probably thought she'd never have to think about again, but she couldn't identify it.

It followed her, Aelita knew that. The feeling followed her ever since the supercomputer was hacked. It was there. It was strong.

Even before that, every time she entered a tower, she sensed it. It was faint then, but always there. Right at that moment when time stopped, right before the code was typed in, before the return to the past. As if, as if it recognized her, stopping for her. Stopping time for her, but it wasn't the tower. It wasn't lyoko... It was Xana. Xana stopped time for her, Xana stopped the attacks for her. As soon as Aelita's hand touched the interface, he stopped. He could feel her presence, and he stopped.

Aelita remembered the times when she had tricked Xana, because he never aimed at her. She had stood infront of Odd and Ulrich, forcing Xana to make a choice. He chose to let Aelita win. Because Xana never hits Aelita. And now Aelita began to understand. The only thing that he wants, more than to cause trouble and possibly dominate the world, is her. She is the key. Then another question entered Aelita's confused mind. Why?

End.

A/N:

That's all folks. The end! Thanks for sticking with me through the ups and downs! You are all awesome. But the question is, did you want me to do a sequel? I've already thought about it and I probably will... That way all questions will be answered. Bare in mind I am probably gonna do an elpologue next chapter so you can find out what happened to poor Jer stuck in the scanner and how they got the source code back. Please review! :)


	28. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

Long after Xana had left, and upon the gang's arrival on Lyoko, they headed to the chamber at the core of Lyoko to reactivate the source code. Nobody was quite sure how exactly to do it and there was under a minute left, so Aelita just brought the code up to the core and one absorbed the other, making them one and the same and restoring harmony to the five sectors. Not to mention curing the supercomputer's stomach-ache like symptoms.

After that, the timer on Aelita's wrist deactivated itself and went back to normal, she knew because she had tried out her wings and they were perfectly fine.

The group hadn't known what to do and Jeremie wasn't responding, so rather than stay stranded on Lyoko for any longer, one by one they devirtualized each other. The fact that the source code was back meant that the supercomputer should be functioning normally, so the scanners should be back online. Either way they took a chance, and the sword came down on Aelita, who shot an energy field at Odd, who fired at Yumi, who threw her fans towards Ulrich. 3 instant kills and 1 delayed.

Jeremie, who was STILL in the scanner, was minding his own business when suddenly and out of the blue the door slid open and Jeremie found himself sprawled across the ground.

_Slam!_ He nearly got his feet cut off again by he door of the scanner closing. Happy to finally be free of the suffocation chamber, Jeremie took deep breaths to fill his lungs back up. Then the two other scanners opened, letting steam clouds float out as well as the two occupants, Yumi and Aelita.

"Hey," Jeremie smiled, picking himself off the floor. "Good to see you two all in one piece."

"You look like you had an adventure yourself," Yumi chimed in.

"Yeah, what happened? What were you _doing_ for two whole hours?" Aelita wondered.

"It's a long story," and one he would rather not tell right this moment.

From one of the scanners, Ulrich walked out casually, like nothing special had occurred. "Whoa, what's up with that scanner?" He asked, diverting everyone's attention to the scanner Jeremie was earlier in, which was now closed, but with steam escaping through the nail file holes.

"Uh-oh," Aelita didn't like this one bit.

All of a sudden, the scanner door swung open, and with way more fog than necessary, and Odd stepped out.

"Man, what happened here? Looks like some—" He went to rest his hands on the bent and twisted edges of the scanner but there was something wrong. Odd looked down at his hands in horror. "Aaah! They're backwards!"

Odd ran around waving his hands madly infront of him. "Aaaah! Einstein! Help me! I can't live like this! Transfer me again!" He yelped.

The others were pretty much doubled over in laughter by this point. Although they did feel some pity and worry for their friend, the hilarity of the situation outweighed everything else. Everyone except Jeremie was laughing, because he had just found out why the scanners were supposed to be airtight and what happened if you tampered with that.

"Jeremie!" Odd whined. "There's gotta be a cure! My right hands on my left wrist and my left hands on my right wrist! Please tell me you can fix this!"

"Don't worry Odd, I'll find a way!" Jeremie declared with determination, and the whole gang hopped into the elevator and into the computer room, jokes being cracked the whole way up.

Odd would protest to them that it's not at all funny, but they still couldn't stop. This was just another end to another long summer day in the life of the lyoko warriors. When the job was done they finally had time to be kids again, and this was how it always would be.

~END~

A/N:

Thats it. Like for real. Thanks again guys for all your reviews and everything, this story probably wouldn't have happened had it not been for you. Btw, I am in fact gonna do a sequil, and it's going to be called; XANA's Secret. If your interested, by all means check it out. I'll probably have the first chapter up by the end of Friday, but after that there's no guarantees on fast chap updates. Catch ya later!

-SlightlyOdd13 out


End file.
